The Former Soviet Union and U.S. Foreign Assistance

The Congressional Research Service, a department of the Library of Congress, conducts research and analysis for Congress on a broad range of national and international policy issues. Some of the CRS work is carried out specifically for individual members of Congress or their staff and is confidential. However, there is also much CRS compiled material which is considered public but is not formally published on the CRS website.

For that reason a number of other organisations try to keep track of these publications and make them publicly available via their own websites. Currently, ESO uses the following websites to track these reports and allow access to them in ESO:

EveryCRSReport.com
Federation of American Scientists (FAS)

In some cases hyperlinks allows you to access all versions of a report, including the latest. Note that many reports are periodically updated.Seeking to encourage a transition to democracy and free market economics in the states of the former Soviet Union (FSU), the United States, since December 1991, has offered roughly $8.2 billion in grants for economic and technical assistance to the region. Most of the grant assistance has been provided through the Agency for International Development (USAID). In addition, $4.8 billion has been provided in food aid through the Department of Agriculture, and $2.9 billion by the Department of Defense for nonproliferation purposes. The United States has also subsidized guarantees for more than $12 billion in credits from the Export-Import Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Department of Agriculture.

In its FY2003 budget request, the Administration proposed funding the former Soviet Union account at $755 million, a decrease of $29 million, or 4%, from the FY2002 appropriated level of $784.

Whether, how much, under what conditions, and to whom in the successor entities of the Soviet Union assistance might be given remain matters of ongoing debate in Congress.

For more information on this issue, see CRS Report RL30112, Russia’s Economic and Political Transition: U.S. Assistance and Issues for Congress, CRS Issue Brief IB98038, Nuclear Weapons in Russia, and CRS Report 97-1027, Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Programs: Issues for Congress.

EveryCRSReport.com https://www.everycrsreport.com/

Federation of American Scientists (FAS): Congressional Research Service [CRS] Reports https://fas.org/sgp/crs/index.html

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