Already filling the void left by the US, Russia builds a copy of USAID
As the United States dismantles one of its most influential soft-power institutions, the Kremlin is preparing to take its place.
With little fanfare, Russia is building its own version of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), hoping to fill the vacuum left by Washington’s retreat from global development programs. The effort, spearheaded through Moscow’s International Agency for Sovereign Development, aims to project Russian influence abroad under the guise of humanitarian aid — and to reframe Russia as a benefactor in regions long served by the West.
Russian officials say they are simply responding to the changing global landscape.
“The Americans destroyed USAID themselves,” one Kremlin official told domestic media in June. “We’re stepping in where they stepped back.”
But analysts and Western officials see something else: the weaponization of aid for geopolitical gain.
Unlike USAID, whose operations were subject to oversight, public audits, and bipartisan scrutiny, Russia’s new aid model is opaque, politicized, and often entangled with private military contractors and disinformation networks. Its programs have appeared in Africa, Central Asia, and parts of Eastern Europe, frequently accompanied by anti-Western messaging and Kremlin-aligned narratives.
“This is not development work as we’ve come to understand it,” said a former USAID official who worked in Eastern Europe. “This is strategic influence disguised as aid. And it’s filling a void the U.S. left open.”
The void is real. In July, the Biden administration finalized the absorption of USAID into the State Department, effectively dissolving its status as an independent agency. While Washington insists that foreign assistance will continue under a new structure, critics warn that the move has already weakened American credibility on the global stage. Into that space steps Moscow — with both money and messaging.
Russia has tied grain shipments, infrastructure support, and disaster relief to pro-Russian policy commitments. In Mali, the delivery of medical supplies was accompanied by state media coverage highlighting Russia’s “friendship with African nations.” In Serbia, educational grants were routed through institutions aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church. In each case, the aid comes with a narrative: the West has abandoned you, but Russia has not.
The campaign has extended beyond material assistance. A recent investigation by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue revealed that Kremlin-linked operatives launched a viral video campaign falsely accusing USAID of funding Hollywood celebrities to manipulate public opinion about Ukraine. One such video, amplified by Elon Musk, gained more than four million views before platforms removed it.
Russian lawmakers have also demanded information about USAID recipients in Russia, reportedly to pass it to law enforcement as part of ongoing crackdowns on so-called “foreign agents.”
To the Kremlin, it is all part of a larger rebranding effort: not just to position Russia as an alternative to the West, but to present it as the moral and cultural counterweight to what it describes as “Western collapse.”
Whether Moscow’s aid diplomacy will win loyalty or merely spread dependency remains unclear. But one thing is certain: where America stepped away, Russia has stepped forward — with its own version of USAID, and its own story to tell.
