Musk-led cuts to the US foreign aid agency have impacted rights groups, independent media, and election monitoring campaigns in Russia, Belarus and Moldova.
Moscow and Belarusian officials have welcomed the impending dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as rights groups, health researchers and independent media voiced concerns about how a withdrawal of funding may impact their operations.
The Trump administration has indicated that the foreign aid agency — which delivers billions of dollars in humanitarian aid to projects overseas — will be all but completely shut down as part of a larger Elon Musk-led project to streamline US government bureaucracy.
On Thursday, officials said the Trump administration announced a plan to slash the number of workers in the agency from 10,000 to around 290, essentially ending many of its operations and leaving the remaining few drastically smaller.
Moscow celebrated the decision, with Russia’s foreign minister spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Thursday describing the agency as, “anything but an aid, development and assistance agency.”
Instead, she claimed, USAID is a “mechanism for changing regimes, political order [and] state structure”.
Former Russian president and deputy chairman of the Russian security council, Dmitri A. Medvedev chimed in to call the move to dismantle the agency “smart”.
But civil society groups helping Russian dissidents say USAID’s closure would put the future of their work at risk.
OVD-Info, a Russian rights group that tracks political arrests and offers legal aid to those detained and prosecuted, said that while the agency’s dismantling has little impact on them, other groups that it helps will be affected.
“Without their existence, our work will become significantly more difficult,” a spokesman for OVD-Info said.
USAID operated in Russia for two decades until it was forced out in 2012. Whilst operational there, it provided financial assistance for public health campaigns and civil society initiatives.
Kovcheg, a group that helps Russians fleeing abroad to find shelter, legal and psychological support and training, said it has lost 30% of its budget as a result of the USAID cut.
“It’s a shame,” the funds won’t be allocated to future projects, said Kovcheg’s founder, Anastasia Burakova, adding that although the organisation would likely survive, they faced challenges getting other funding, particularly from Russian donors.
Russian authorities have designated many rights organisations like these as “foreign agents”, a label that deters potential donors and prohibits advertising.
In light of the freeze, Russian philanthropists Boris Zimin and exiled tycoon-turned-Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky announced a $600,000 (€577,736) support programme for Russian and Ukrainian language projects — a proposal met with suspicion from Ukrainian bloggers and on social media.
Misery in Minsk
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who recently secured another term in power via a fixed election, claimed the decision to take apart the agency was a response to his calls for a “reset” of relations between Belarus and the US.
In Belarus, rights groups supporting political prisoners in the country are expected to see drastic cuts to their funding, with AP reporting that 60-80 groups close to opposition leaders facing possible mass layoffs, ending programmes or closing for good.
The country’s leading human rights group Viasna — whose imprisoned founder Ales Bialiatski won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 — said the freeze in USAID will “significantly impair” its work.
An activist from the Belarusian Association of Journalists said that out of 30 large Belarusian media groups working abroad, six had lost funding and had to shutter completely.
A total of $1.7 million (€ 1.6 million) in aid is frozen according to the organisation — more than half of all foreign aid to independent media forced to flee the country after Lukashenko unleashed a widespread crackdown on opposition in 2020.
Lena Zhivoglod, head of Honest People, which was set up in 2020 to counter Lukashenko’s official narrative, said that she will soon have to lay off 15 staff members and terminate the lease on the group’s office in Warsaw, Poland.
Fighting for freedom
USAID funding also extends to groups monitoring elections in Moldova — where European officials accused Russia of meddling in two key votes last year, including backing a mass vote-buying scheme in the country.
Promo-LEX Association, a long-time pro-democracy and human rights NGO in Moldova, said USAID funds account for about 75-80% of its projects, which include monitoring elections, political financing and parliamentary oversight.
“Without immediate alternative support, these crucial activities may not continue at the same scale or effectiveness,” said Ion Manole, the association’s executive director.
“Given previous Russian interference — through illicit campaign funding, political corruption, and disinformation — our observation mission is essential to ensuring electoral transparency,” he said.
Also celebrating the demise of USAID is Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán, who said on Friday morning that his government will take legal action to eliminate non-governmental organisations and media outlets operating in the country that receive funding from the US and other international sources.
Orbán praised Trump’s decision to dismantle USAID, claiming it work had been used to fund organisations that sought to “topple” his government.
“Now is the moment when these international networks have to be taken down, they have to be swept away,” Orbán said. “It is necessary to make their existence legally impossible.”
