Summary
The US government has spent millions of dollars to assist Russia in its efforts to rebuild itself. The money provided by the US has been earmarked for a wide variety of programs, from the destruction of nuclear warheads to agriculture. However, many are now calling for an end to the Russian aid program in view of the lack of concrete results. In addition, concerns have been expressed regarding the tendency of Russia and the other states of the former USSR to ignore their debts when these fall due.
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Extract
The Russian aid mess.
THE WELL-INTENTIONED effort to use United States tax dollars to influence significantly the course of events in Russia and Ukraine died a quiet death over the past few months. Born in 1991 as a $400 million bipartisan congressional initiative to reduce the threat from excess Soviet weapons of mass destruction, by 1993 aid to Russia and Ukraine had become a $3 billion hobby shop. When Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin met in September 1994, with few concrete results to show for the time and money invested in aid, the two frustrated leaders quietly agreed to focus on trade and investment. The Russians, badly cast as supplicants, were relieved.
This is not to say that the winding up of grant aid programs will end claims by the former Soviet Union on the United States Treasury. The disturbing Russian and Ukrainian habit of ignoring bills due could result in future claims against federal export credit and investment agencies that far exceed the $4 billion already disbursed in grant aid between 1991 and 1994. Th...See the full content of this document
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