23.10 US Defunds Venerable Russian Studies Program
WASHINGTON, October 22 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) Amid federal budget wrangling, the United States has defunded a program financing academic research on Russia and the former Soviet bloc, officials and academics said Tuesday, that scholars call crucial to building an understanding of the region among US officials and the American public.
In this fiscal climate, it just didnt make it, a US State Department official told RIA Novosti on Tuesday of the State Departments Title VIII program, which provides grant money for research and language training focusing on Russia and the former Soviet bloc.
Rumors had been percolating in US academic circles this year that the State Department was planning to defund the program, which was established under a 1983 law signed by the late US President Ronald Reagan to promote the study of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
But the State Department only informed organizations administering the grant money in early October after the close of the fiscal year that the program would not be funded, said Lynda Park, executive director of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES).
I understand that the situation is bad, but this was still a major blow and sort of a shock to us because it came so late in the game, Park told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
The program disbursed around $3.5 million in grant money in last years cycle to fund doctoral dissertations, post-doctoral research and language training, among other activities, Park said.
