"Now, with Russian President Vladimir Putin bullying his neighbors, manipulating the Russian media and throwing increasingly audacious anti-American tantrums, one would think US policymakers would have the sense at least to maintain relatively modest VOA operations in and around the Russian Federation," the Washington Post says in today's editorial.
"Yet President Bush's recently released 2008 budget proposal does just the opposite, cutting VOA programming for a range of post-Soviet states to finance programming expansion in other areas of the world."
Among the changes that the Post laments: cutting "the only direct contact Uzbeks have with the United States and the only unvarnished news in the region," and cutting broadcasts to Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
"The price of such programs is so low that federal financial constraints are hardly an excuse to kill them," the editors say.
What could the reason be, then? Might it have something to do with the fact that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) member responsible for the former Soviet Union, D. Jeffrey Hirschberg, is a director of the pro-Kremlin US-Russia Business Council?
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