AzerNews, Azerbaijan
July 7 2005

US sees Russia as threat to democratic changes in CIS

The US House of Representatives committee on financial services has
said that Russia poses a threat to democratic development in the
former Soviet Union republics (Commonwealth of Independent States).
The committee said it is concerned over Russia’s strengthening
position and called on the State Department to hold an international
conference to promote democracy in the

region, Russian Novosti (News) news agency quoted a US Senate source
as saying.
The US State Department draft state budget for 2006, approved by the
committee last weekend, says that authoritarian Russia is a source of
threats for countries currently in transition to democracy and
averting this threat is a priority for the United States.
The committee indicated that the State Department’s programs on
support for democratic development are of particular importance for
‘countries like Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan’ due to the success
of democracy in these countries.
The committee also said that considerable resources are required to
give an incentive to democratic development in CIS, calling on the US
government to increase budget spending. It also instructed the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) to explicitly and
substantially ‘support the democratic processes’ in Russia and
Azerbaijan.
The US has allocated $565 million for financial programs, support to
democratic and economic reforms and promoting the rule of law in the
former USSR republics this year. Azerbaijan will receive $38 million,
while Armenia – $75 million, and Georgia $70.5 million. The largest
amount among CIS states, $95 million, is earmarked for Ukraine.