The 90-day suspension of US aid and “stop-work” requirement following the president’s executive order last week has exposed with lightning-like intensity the global reach of US assistance, whose diverse projects worldwide have been an essential part of American soft power.

The Trump administration’s abrupt freeze on foreign aid has plunged exiled Russian NGOs and media outlets into uncertainty, jeopardizing their funding and posing what some describe as the greatest challenge to Russian civil society since the Kremlin enacted its “undesirable” organization law a decade ago.