Baku 21° C
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Baku. 26 April. REPORT.AZ/ Taking a decision on reduction or cancellation of financial assistance to foreign countries, United States took into account an index of economic development of the countries.
Report was told by scientist of the Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Alexander Karavayev commenting on Trump’s plan to cut aid to a number of developing countries, including Azerbaijan.
"By and large, this is purely an internal story, as Trump cuts government spending in many areas. Also, it should be taken into account that aid was cut off to CIS leaders on development indices - Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and on growth rates - Uzbekistan, Belarus, also Turkmenistan partly for the same reason", A.Karavayev said.
He also noted that another point of view in choosing the countries is due to the lack of demand for democracy of the "western type", as these countries go their own way.
"In part, negative image of USAID as the patron of revolutions played a role here in these countries. For example, their Russian office in 2012 was canceled precisely because of the request of the Russian leadership", analyst added.
In his opinion, the EU structures are now playing the role of development institutions for Azerbaijan, developing twinning projects, targeted programs for small business development, and certain grants of infrastructure banks for various purposes.
"The place of Baku in US policy in Central Asia, Afghanistan and the Middle East is stable", expert said.
According to him, comparing preservation of programs for Armenia and their sequestration for Azerbaijan does not make a sense.
"For Armenia, they are a more pressing need, but after reduction and for Yerevan they are rather a formality rather than a systemic influence," A.Karavayev believes.
Russian expert added that the 15-page document published by Foreign Policy is only a budget project of the US State Department and Congress can reduce size of cuts.
