USAID was engaged in subversive activities throughout the world — Mikhail Tilman

Speaking with Alpha News, political scientist Mikhail Tilman commented on the reports about the shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“USAID is a government organization that was founded in 1961. The purpose of its activities is, as they say, to issue grants for cultural development for various programs, but in fact, it is an organization that was engaged in subversive activities throughout the world, including in Russia. USAID supported, financially and in other ways, anti-government forces that sought to change the political regime in one country or another.

This includes Russia, this includes Ukraine, and this includes virtually any country in the world that the United States has considered its zone of interest. The American government has three channels of influence. The first is military, the second is diplomatic, and the third is soft power. USAID was one of the three channels. And now it has not just been closed, but it is being reorganized. That is, the employees have been placed on administrative leave. As far as I understand, the plan is not so much to close it completely but to move it under the State Department’s control,” Tilman said.

President Trump will try to clean up the top and middle-level bureaucracy in the United States, the expert noted.

“The reason this news causes a stir is that it appears to have been a blow that the Washington bureaucracy was not expecting, and that is why it has been particularly painful for them. The fact is that President Trump is now taking steps to fulfill his first-term promise to drain the Washington swamp. Last time, the swamp drained him. This time, it appears, he is trying new approaches and will primarily try to clean out the top and mid-level bureaucracy,” Tilman concluded.