The US department of State has published a very interesting report, which clearly shows how much money the post-soviet states have received “to develop democracy”.
In 1992 the US Congress adopted a law on “Independence of Eurasia and supporting developing democracies and free markets of Eurasia”. As a result the US provided financial support to CIS countries (except for Baltic countries). Now the State Department has decided to calculate the capacity of the money the mentioned countries have received during 14 years (1992-2006). Russia is in the first place and received 11.4bln dollar. The next country is Ukraine (1.3 bln). Georgia received 725mln, Kazakhstan – 636mln, Armenia – 495mln, Tajikistan – 458mln, Kirgizstan – 374mln, Uzbekistan – 370mln, Belarus – 324mln, Moldova – 294mln, Azerbaijan – 261mln and Turkmenistan – 156mln. Most part of the mentioned resources was provided in 1993-1994. Three billion dollar has been provided for developing democratic institutions (specifically judicial system reformation, support to media and civic sector, etc). The biggest portion was given to Russia (1.1bln). Ukraine received 600mln, Armenia – 234mln, Georgia – 175mln, Kazakhstan – 162mln, Uzbekistan – 144mln, Kirgizstan – 133mln, Azerbaijan – 130mln, Belarus – 114mln, Moldova – 87mln, Tajikistan – 75mln and Turkmenistan – 47mln. Print media writes that the effectiveness of such funds provided by the US is very suspicious. “There has been developed democracy neither in Russia nor the neighboring countries”. Furthermore, even the Russians don’t want democracy so much. According to the surveys conducted by Gallup, only 18% of the covered Russians said that they would like to live like the Western countries. About 20% of them said that they would like to return to the Soviet times. 40% of them said that the regime should be like the Soviet one but should include some components of democracy and market economy. 10% prefer authoritarian system and 2% prefer monarchy. There hasn’t been such survey in Armenia but it is clear that there has been no result in Armenia. According to the information of the State Department, Armenia is in the first place with the aids capacity per capita (73 dollar), Georgia is in the second place (40$), Kirgizstan is in the third place (27$) and Russia is in the fourth place (8$). There can be two conclusions: either we like the soviet regime more than the Russians do or we need more money. However, Georgia is a bright example to show that money is not the most important factor to develop democracy.