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Russia shows USAID the door
Source: RTThe United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced it will close its offices in Russia.
After 20 years of working in Russia, USAID officials said they were informed by the Russian government that their services were no longer required.
According to the Foreign Ministry, USAID was attempting to manipulate the election processes in the country.
"The character of the agency's work"¦did not always comply with the declared aims of cooperation in bilateral humanitarian cooperation," the Foreign Ministry said on its website. "We are talking about issuing grants in an attempt to affect the course of the political processes in the country, including elections at different levels and institutions in civil society."
Russian civil society has become fully mature, the Foreign Ministry said, and did not need any "external direction." Moscow is read to work with USAID in third-party countries, it said.
In an interview to Kommersant, Dmitry Peskov, President Putin's press-secretary, suggested that the US agency was not abiding by the rules regulating their work with NGOs.
"As all foreign agencies that provide financial support for Russian NGOs, USAID should abide by Russia's legal regulations," Peskov said. "As long as the Americans abide by these norms, we obviously couldn't make a decision to terminate their activities on Russian territory."
Moscow's decision to halt USAID programs comes after Putin in July signed legislation that requires nongovernmental organizations that receive funds from abroad to register as "foreign agents."
The law requires that Russian-based NGOs provide information as to how funds received from abroad are being used in Russia.