Countering Kremlin Malign Influence
How USAID bolsters self-determination and democracy in Europe & Eurasia
The eastern Europe of today tells a much different story than what I witnessed when I visited the region following the fall of the Berlin Wall more than 20 years ago. Today there are no breadlines; the heat is on in government buildings and public schools; the electricity is working.
And yet, despite genuine markers of progress, the people’s thirst for democracy and rule of law continues to go unfulfilled — largely at the behest of the region’s most powerful leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Two years ago, when I was asked to serve as USAID’s Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Europe and Eurasia, I made it my mission to show those who continue to seek democracy in the region that America stands with them.
The spirit that animates our Constitution is the same force that drives the people of Europe and Eurasia to keep fighting for responsive, inclusive, democratic governance. When harnessed, this spirit can counter the malign actions which hold these nations back.
I had many reasons to say ‘yes’ to this job, but for me, it was personal. My grandfather was forced to abandon everything he knew more than a century ago to escape religious persecution in the Russian Empire. As a new American, he quickly became a fierce and loyal advocate for the freedoms he was never offered in his ancestral homeland.
In 1997, as part of the young political leaders exchange program, I also spent time in Russia. I still vividly remember meeting teenage students in a cold high school classroom outside of Moscow. Lacking heat, these kids, wrapped in scarves, wore their warmest winter jackets just to stay warm. They studied from tattered books that looked decades old and used writing utensils that made me thankful for the half dozen #2 pencils I always had at the ready when I was their age.
Six years had passed since the fall of the Soviet Union, when hopes were still flying high and every Russian expected a better life almost instantaneously. However, nothing would come quickly or easily.
One young woman I met even foreshadowed today’s dilemma and Putin’s strategy to pit our nations against one another. She asked me, “Where are the Americans? You were supposed to be our white knights in shining armor, coming to help us realize our dreams. Yet, here we are studying in the cold, with little prospect of the future… .”
Of course, the United States had been and would continue for some years to deliver foreign assistance to Russia in the name of economic and democratic reform, but in her eyes, in that room, it was hard to see.
The teenagers I met in 1997 are now young adults in their thirties, still trying to realize their democratic dreams in a Russia hardened by its leadership’s authoritarian tactics. Meanwhile, we have seen the Government of Russia, Putin’s government, becoming more and more belligerent, reasserting its influence by any means possible in the region.
The illegal annexation of Crimea, the war in Eastern Ukraine, spreading corruption from Russia to Moldova and on to the new members of the European Union, meddling in elections and manufacturing propaganda: Putin’s Russia is a threat to the values that Americans uphold, and that people across the world fight for.
Self-determination, liberty, freedom, and rule of law are not only pillars of American life; they are principles that all people crave, no matter from which town, city, or country they come.
Safeguarding Self-Determination and Democracy
The Administration’s resolve to counter Putin’s narrative is clear — new sanctions imposed on Putin’s cronies are one of many examples. But as we confront Putin’s Russia, it is also important to remember the Russian people.
The Russian people still want the same basic rights and opportunities that we all want, to leave behind a better future for the next generation.
We must distinguish between our efforts to support the people of Russia and our response to Putin’s attack on democracy. Our efforts to push back on Putin will empower the people of the region, including Russia, to make their own choices. USAID’s new Countering Malign Kremlin Influence framework can be a source of support and inspiration to millions of Russians who hunger for the liberty that underlies basic human dignity.
By emphasizing the Kremlin instead of Russia, we are telling the Russian people that the United States and the free world support their call for a democratic government, free of cronyism and corruption.
We are also telling the Kremlin that their lies and propaganda will not obscure the fact that the current Government of Russia, at its core, does not represent the best interests of the Russian people. We are telling Putin that we know — and the people of Russia know — falsehoods obscure neither misadventures in Ukraine nor pilfering from the Russian State.
Because of the courageous work of the Russian reformers — Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov, the latter who was brutally killed just steps away from the Kremlin walls — we all know the extent of corruption among the Putin elites. When a group of journalists published the investigative report known as the Panama Papers, we learned how Putin rewards his friends at the expense of the Russian people through schemes that have siphoned billions of dollars from the public coffers.
This thievery cannot be obscured by anti-Western rhetoric on Kremlin-controlled airwaves and the increasingly policed internet. The people of Russia know when they are being lied to. That is probably why, today, only 45 percent of Russians or less would vote for Putin, and a record number of one in five report wanting to leave Russia altogether.
The question is: What’s next and how can we help?
The Russian people should know that the United States and our allies are not the enemies of Russia. Maintaining an open flow of information and continuing to build bridges with our Russian friends is just as important today as it was thirty years ago.
We will continue supporting those Russians who seek truth. We will make it difficult for Putin’s oligarchs to stash away their ill-gotten goods in our financial institutions, and to enjoy the freedoms and openness of the West, while denying those things to average Russians in Russia.
We will counter malign influence by the Kremlin by supporting democracy and freedom in the former Soviet space and the Warsaw Pact. We will stand by our friends when they confront brutish behavior. And we will not give up on the Russian people. I believe that one day, those students I met in 1997 will finally witness what they longed for in that freezing classroom over 20 years ago: a democratic Russia that delivers for its people.
About the Author
Brock Bierman is USAID’s Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Europe and Eurasia. Follow him @BBiermanUSAID.
