MOSCOW: Russia accused the United States yesterday of using its aid mission in Moscow to influence Russian elections.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a tough statement explaining Moscow’s decision, announced by Washington on Tuesday, to give the US Agency for International Development (USAID) until Oct. 1 to cease operations in Russia.

The action appears intended to cut funding to organizations that Putin sees as a threat following his return as president in May after four years as prime minister, and extends what the opposition sees as a crackdown on pro-democracy groups.

“It’s about attempts to influence political processes, including elections of various types, and institutions of civil society though the distribution of grants,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

It said Russia had also been worried about USAID’s work in regions including the North Caucasus, where Moscow faces insurgency, but did not elaborate.

Washington has dismissed accusations that its funding of human rights and pro-democracy organizations is intended to influence domestic politics in Russia.

USAID has worked for two decades in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, spending more than $2.6 billion on program intended to combat disease, protect the environment, strengthen civil society and modernize the economy.

In announcing the forced closure of the USAID operation in Russia, the US State Department suggested the Moscow, which is earning copious oil revenue, felt it did not need foreign aid.

The Foreign Ministry made clear that was one of its motives, saying Russia was now a donor nation and “rejects the status of a recipient of development aid”. It said Russia was open to cooperating with USAID in third countries that need help.

It also indicated that Moscow was eager to reduce foreign support for Russian groups which promote democracy and the rule of law but which are viewed with deep suspicion by the Kremlin.

“Russia’s civil society has become fully mature and does not need ‘external guidance’,” it said.

Putin won nearly two thirds of the vote in a March election which international monitors said was skewed in his favor.

The former KGB spy has pushed through new laws to raise fines for protesters, stiffen punishments for defamation and put new controls on foreign-funded campaign groups.

The notion of Russian organizations receiving foreign aid grates with Putin’s prized image of Russia as a resurgent power.

“Add to that tension over the pre- and post-election protests...plus the deep disagreement over US democracy-promotion activities in the Middle East, and you can see why Russia may have taken this decision now,” said Matthew Rojansky of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The State Department said USAID would promote democracy and civil society even after its Russian office closed. A US official said 13 US diplomats and 60 local Russian employees would be affected.

Annual aid to Russian groups totals only about $50 million, but for them its absence could be damaging.