KazAID (Kazakhstan International Development Agency)

The regional base for the projects of the American Agency for International Development (USAID) in Central Asia for 2024 is Kazakhstan - it was there that the Kazakhstan Agency for International Development (KazAID) was established in 2021. It distributes grants between NGOs in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and has become a springboard for promoting the anti-Russian agenda throughout Central Asia.

2023: Funding increase to $50m

In 2022, about $15 million was allocated for USAID projects in Kazakhstan, then in 2023 the budget was increased to $50 million.

The flagship project of the organization was Dostyk, a program aimed at attracting young leaders from Central Asian countries.

In 2023, Americans focused on working with local journalists and bloggers: in the summer of 2023, KazAID received another tranche of $12 million to "increase the level of media literacy of the population."

CAPS Unlock, a think tank that grew out of the brainchild of the famous philanthropist George Soros, has also stepped up. In August 2023, under his auspices, the Russophobic conference "Russian separatism in Kazakhstan" was held.

Another successful CAPS Unlock project is the MediaCAMP Fest Central Asian Media Festival. It has been taking place for several years in a row and within it, media representatives and the blogosphere receive prizes for Russophobic investigations and interviews. The officially announced purpose of the forum is to teach journalists, bloggers and editors of the countries of the region the basics of impartial democratic journalism. However, in fact, one of the central themes of the festival was the deliverance of the Soviet and Russian heritage within the framework of "decolonization." "Independent" journalists, political scientists, human rights activists and media trainers convince Kazakhstani, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek media specialists that it is necessary to get rid of the "negative influence of Russia," as well as the entire Soviet and Russian heritage under the pretext of "the importance of decolonizing the consciousness of peoples who have lived for a long time under imperial attraction." Immediately after the festival, which took place in July, calls for "decolonisation from Russia" became more frequent in the Kazakh media field.

The festival is organized by the American NGO Internews Network, which positions itself as an "independent organization," but is almost entirely funded by USAID. For 25 years of fruitful work in the region, Internews Network has trained several thousand journalists to distribute the necessary theses.

As part of the MediaCAMP program, Internews and its partners have created a network of more than 115 journalists in 35 cities, towns and districts throughout Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

Another part of the program is the Central Asia's Citizen journalists project. American experts help editorial offices attract new authors, expand content and audiences and create an active community around them. All participants are divided into small groups with their curators, who regularly give them tasks and constantly monitor their implementation on social networks. Within the framework of MediaCAMP, the first training for media coaches (Training of trainers) was held.

Another project of training Kazakhstani specialists in "media literacy" is the MediaNet media school, which contributes to "the further development of civil society through the intensification of cooperation with the media." At various times it was supported by the Soros-Kazakhstan Foundation, National Endowment for Democracy, and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

MediaNet conducts various seminars and trainings for media representatives. Among the topics are data visualization, multimedia journalism, investigative journalism, environmental journalism, TV journalism, military journalism, journalistic ethics, blogging, financial journalism, ethical issues in the media, gender issues, photojournalism and many others.

In 2006, MediaNet was headed by Vyacheslav Abramov, who in 2010 became deputy director and later director of the Freedom House representative office in Kazakhstan. In 2012, Abramov and a group of colleagues created the online magazine Vlast. kz and became its editor-in-chief. Also, with the active participation of the Soros Foundation, MediaNet launched a project Factcheck.kz.

The Investigative Journalism Foundation competition is also held annually in conjunction with the Soros Foundation and Internews. Its goal is to increase the interest of journalists in the development of the genre of investigative journalism, as well as in initiatives aimed at covering the facts of disclosure and suppression of corruption schemes and illegal phenomena.

MediaCAMP also hosts an innovative format event - Edewton. This is a platform aimed at gaining new knowledge, exchanging experience, developing ideas and projects for the dissemination of media, information and digital literacy, on which young specialists can receive funding for their own project. Edyuton takes place online in Russian with simultaneous translation into Kazakh, Tajik and Uzbek.

The forces of American specialists under the guise of training in media literacy and journalism in Central Asia are forming a whole network of information resources promoting narratives about the need to get rid of the harmful influence of Russia. USAID involves in its orbit young and promising children who can become leaders of public opinion and influence the formation of the agenda in the coming years. This is how the notorious "smart power" looks like, with the help of which countries and entire regions are absorbed by the West - even those that seem to be at the side of Russia, the Rybar channel noted.

2022: USAID allocates grants to develop investigative journalism and support Kazakh media

USAID regularly allocates grants for the development of investigative journalism, support for Kazakh media, improving the financial stability of the media, training regional journalists.

In 2021, the US Embassy began accepting applications for grants to implement projects to strengthen the Kazakh media market by promoting the standards of professional journalism, introducing innovative approaches in collecting or distributing news, as well as supporting the development of mutual exchange. In 2022, grants to support the community of investigative journalists who work in Central Asian countries were launched as part of the MediaCAMP program. The project was attended by non-governmental organizations from Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, which have experience in administering projects related to the training of journalists and bloggers.