USAID’s support of radicals no longer ‘Russian propaganda’ – Moscow’s UN envoy
The recent revelations about the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) links to extremist groups and shady projects validate concerns long expressed by Russia, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told the UN Security Council on Monday.
In one of his first executive orders after taking office on January 20, US President Donald Trump suspended all US foreign aid, pending a three-month review. The decision is part of a broader plan to significantly reduce government spending. USAID is Washington’s primary agency for administering foreign aid and political projects abroad.
The agency also underwent an inspection by the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, earlier this month. Musk subsequently branded it a “criminal organization” that he believes was financing bioweapons research, including projects that allegedly led to the emergence of Covid-19.
Russia was “not at all surprised by the recent revelations regarding the USAID activities,” Nebenzia said. “We have long spoken about the fact that it has been financing radical elements throughout the world,” he stated, adding that such remarks were previously dismissed as “Russian propaganda” but eventually turned out to be true.
Last week, a senior Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachev, said Musk’s accusations against USAID only confirm what Moscow was aware of all along. Russia knew that USAID was sponsoring biological laboratories around the world, including in Ukraine, Kosachev, the deputy head of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, said in a Telegram post.
“I can confirm that we have seen this funding through the USAID,” according to the lawmaker, who had previously co-headed a parliamentary investigative committee studying the activities of US biological laboratories. USAID grants were often just a “cover-up” for US military projects linked to biological weapon technologies, he claimed.
In early February, the agency closed its main office in Washington, DC, and told personnel to stay away after Trump halted its programs. Last Saturday, however, a US court temporarily barred USAID from putting thousands of employees on paid leave. A lawsuit was also filed on behalf of two labor unions representing federal workers in a bid to prevent the agency from being shut down.
