In the summer of 1988, I was one of three Moscow-based foreign correspondents permitted by the Soviet Foreign Ministry to visit Magnitogorsk, the Russian steel-making city that had been closed to foreigners for decades. I went there to cover “Information USA,” the first such American “soft power” exhibit allowed in the once-forbidden city. Life was changing; the Soviet Union was opening up.
Another American in Magnitogorsk that summer was Timothy Frye, a young guide for the exhibit. Nearly 40 years later, Frye, now a political scientist and former Harriman director, describes in this issue the daily crowds who lined up, eager to learn about life in America—and astounded at how freely the guides spoke.
“Our visitors were often staggered to learn that most guides in the exhibit voted in 1988 for Michael Dukakis rather than George Bush and that we were willing to criticize many aspects of U.S. politics rather than simply spout a party line,” Frye writes.
While Frye acknowledges it’s a stretch to say soft power exhibitions brought down Soviet Communism, he makes a strong case for their effectiveness in promoting democracy to those living in the Soviet dictatorship.
But soft power and democracy promotion are now mere relics of U.S. foreign policy, swept away when the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development in early 2025, along with the international broadcasting programs that had long countered Soviet, and later Russian, propaganda. Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty struggled for survival throughout 2025, clearing the way for Russian disinformation efforts to grow across the region—and the world. “For the moment, Russia seems the clear winner from Trump’s moves,” Tom Kent, Harriman adjunct professor and former president of RFE/RL, concludes in an essay for this issue.
One place Russia’s efforts have faltered so far is Moldova, where voters chose to keep their pro-European Union president in office last September. As journalist Corina Cepoi reports, Moldova has received at least $1 billion in USAID assistance since the early 1990s to support anti-corruption programs, independent media, and business development to reduce economic dependence on Russia. But Russian meddling is expected to continue, and the cutoff of U.S. foreign aid could weaken some of the institutions needed to protect Moldova’s democracy.
Democracy in the region was in crisis before Donald Trump returned to the White House, but there’s little doubt that the disappearance of U.S. foreign aid can deepen that crisis. What will people fighting for more freedom do? Our Reflections section looks at three countries—Georgia, Ukraine, and Serbia— where protest movements continue the fight for democracy. With or without U.S. support.
Ann Cooper
Editor-in-Chief
Featured photo: A sign in Ciorescu, Moldova, announces USAID’s role in rehabilitating one of the village’s water towers. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja)
