US President Joe Biden has asked lawmakers to allocate $108 million from the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1, to combat “Russia’s malign influence in the Western Balkans,” said US Agency for International Development (USAID) aide for affairs Europe and Eurasia by Erin McKee.
According to McKee, the influence of the Russian Federation “goes beyond the borders of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova,” TASS reports. She stressed that Moscow “seeks to exploit local divisions in the Western Balkans in an attempt to disrupt peace and stability by fueling or exacerbating tensions between ethnic groups, continuing efforts to undermine democracy and political processes, and spreading disinformation.”
“The President’s $108 million for the Western Balkans provides critical funding for <…> strengthening integration in both the democratic and economic spheres, increasing resilience and regional economic cooperation between countries,” McKee said at a hearing in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives.
Source: Rosbalt
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