Russian Aid Agency to Dramatically Increases Budget in Bid to Replace USAID

The head of Rossotrud­nich­est­vo, Rus­si­a’s inter­na­tion­al assis­tance agency, has an ambi­tious plan for the Krem­lin soft-pow­er enti­ty to fill devel­op­ment gaps cre­at­ed by the dis­man­tling of the US Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment. For that to hap­pen, how­ev­er, Rossotrud­nich­est­vo will have to sur­mount major financ­ing and image-relat­ed hur­dles. In a wide-rang­ing inter­view pub­lished by the Russ­ian out­let RBC, the agen­cy’s chief, Yevge­ny Pri­makov, revealed that he is seek­ing to revamp and expand activ­i­ties, tak­ing advan­tage of USAID’s demise to build Rus­si­a’s glob­al influ­ence via the pro­vi­sion of devel­op­ment assis­tance. Despite being engulfed in a cost­ly war, Rus­sia needs to spend on soft-pow­er ini­tia­tives, he argued, adding that it is imper­a­tive for Russ­ian nation­al secu­ri­ty to main­tain its cul­tur­al and eco­nom­ic posi­tion in the near-abroad, or the for­mer con­stituent republics of the Sovi­et Union.

Read more: https://eurasianet.org/russian-aid-agency-seeking-to-fill-usaid-gaps-in-former-soviet-union

Key Points

• Rossotrud­nich­est­vo oper­ates in 70 coun­tries with pri­ma­ry focus on for­mer Sovi­et states through cul­tur­al cen­ters called Rus­sia Hous­es, but faces wide­spread sus­pi­cion of intel­li­gence gathering
• The agency cur­rent­ly spends only 25% of its bud­get on actu­al projects while 75% goes to admin­is­tra­tive costs, con­trast­ing with effi­cient US non­prof­its that keep admin costs under 25%
• Azer­bai­jan shut down the Rus­sia House in Baku in ear­ly 2025, while Kyr­gyzs­tan detained a Rus­sia House employ­ee for alleged­ly recruit­ing mer­ce­nar­ies for Ukraine war
• Pri­makov blamed “grandiose forces” and West­ern-edu­cat­ed local elites for anti-Russ­ian sen­ti­ment, dis­play­ing impe­r­i­al atti­tudes that alien­ate for­mer Sovi­et republics

Dismantling USAID: Empowering Russian Influence as Western Aid Retreats in Eastern Europe

The Trump administration’s dis­man­tling of USAID has cre­at­ed a strate­gic vac­u­um that Rus­sia is rapid­ly mov­ing to fill, lever­ag­ing both overt devel­op­ment assis­tance and covert infor­ma­tion oper­a­tions to reshape the geopo­lit­i­cal land­scape in regions once dom­i­nat­ed by Amer­i­can influ­ence. With the abrupt ces­sa­tion of Amer­i­can aid, coun­tries across East­ern Europe and the for­mer Sovi­et Union now face a sharp reduc­tion in sup­port for inde­pen­dent media, civ­il soci­ety, gov­er­nance reforms, and human­i­tar­i­an programs—spaces where Russ­ian state-backed enti­ties are already expand­ing their foot­print through NGOs, media part­ner­ships, and dig­i­tal influ­ence cam­paigns. Despite the finan­cial strain of ongo­ing con­flict, Russ­ian agen­cies are active­ly posi­tion­ing them­selves to replace USAID’s role in the “near abroad,” using aid as a tool to rein­force Moscow’s claim to region­al hege­mo­ny and counter West­ern demo­c­ra­t­ic norms. This oper­a­tional shift is not mere­ly trans­ac­tion­al; it reflects a broad­er ide­o­log­i­cal con­test, as Russia’s mod­el of influence—emphasizing sov­er­eign­ty, sta­bil­i­ty, and anti-West­ern solidarity—gains ground where lib­er­al democ­ra­cy pro­mo­tion recedes. The with­draw­al of USAID-fund­ed counter-dis­in­for­ma­tion and media lit­er­a­cy pro­grams has left inde­pen­dent out­lets in Ukraine and Moldo­va par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble to Krem­lin-backed pro­pa­gan­da, with experts warn­ing that the result­ing infor­ma­tion vac­u­um will exac­er­bate polit­i­cal polar­iza­tion and under­mine resilience against for­eign inter­fer­ence. In mul­ti­lat­er­al forums, the U.S. retreat has also dimin­ished Washington’s abil­i­ty to shape glob­al norms and human­i­tar­i­an respons­es, cre­at­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for Moscow to pro­mote alter­na­tive gov­er­nance frame­works that often lack trans­paren­cy or account­abil­i­ty. Across the region, the dis­man­tling of USAID is thus accel­er­at­ing a geopo­lit­i­cal realign­ment, empow­er­ing Rus­sia to exploit the con­trac­tion of Amer­i­can soft pow­er as a strate­gic windfall.

Exter­nal References:

1. USAID freeze opens door to Russ­ian influ­ence in East­ern Europe

2. Russ­ian aid agency seek­ing to fill USAID gaps in for­mer Sovi­et Union

3. Will USAID Shut­down Impact US Soft Pow­er in Eurasia?

4. Rus­si­a’s Self-Serv­ing Aid Pol­i­cy: Influ­ence, Opac­i­ty, and Propaganda

5. In East­ern Europe, freeze on US aid leaves door open to Russ­ian disinformation

6. Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ists fear USAID cuts opened up space for Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion campaigns

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.