. . . And Cuts for Russia

AS WE'VE SAID above, it is good news that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is planning to spend $75 million on aid to Iranian democrats and Farsi-language broadcasters. It's less good news that the administration is planning cuts in similar forms of aid to Russia and other countries that made up the Soviet Union.

To be precise, next year the Bush administration plans to cut "democracy assistance" to Russia -- money authorized by the 1992 Freedom Support Act -- to $31.6 million from $44.2 million. That's money that gets spent on support for human rights and other independent organizations, as well as training for journalists and election monitors. Other cuts, in a wide range of academic and professional exchange programs, will reduce the amount spent on public diplomacy in Russia even further. The changes in Russia are mirrored in other ex-Soviet countries: Overall, the Freedom Support Act funding will drop significantly next year, resulting in less money for democracy promotion as well as health and education across the region. And -- rubbing salt in the wound -- Voice of America will stop radio broadcasting in Russian and a half-dozen Balkan languages too. Radio Liberty will continue its Russian broadcasts, although since a recent change in format -- an attempt at "popularization" -- there is evidence that Radio Liberty's audience has declined.

The State Department's explanation for the cuts isn't political but budgetary: Put simply, the money that used to get spent in Russia is now going to Iran, as well as Afghanistan and the Middle East. While not illogical, this change is shortsighted. Recent legal changes as well as political pressure from the Kremlin have weakened Russia's already small contingent of democrats. Yet Russia is due to hold important elections in 2008 -- elections that may determine whether the country remains even nominally democratic in the future.

If it does not, there could be serious consequences for American foreign policy -- for example in the Middle East and Iran, where Russia has lately been looking to revive its influence, often in ways unhelpful to the United States. Is it too much to ask that the administration keep its focus on more than one set of democracies at a time?