The remaining USAID employees in Azerbaijan, who had been continuing their illegal activities, have turned off their phones and left all WhatsApp groups since yesterday, according to a source cited by Minval.az.
The source claims they were warned about an ongoing investigation into the agency in Washington, which could potentially extend to Azerbaijan. Fearing scrutiny, they are reportedly looking for ways to leave the country.
The source did not rule out the possibility that a special envoy from Washington may arrive at the U.S. Embassy in Baku to investigate potential cases of USAID funds being misused in Azerbaijan.
Yesterday, the White House published a report highlighting wasteful spending and abuses within USAID. It is alleged that the agency allocated hundreds of millions of dollars for irrigation and fertilizers that facilitated poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.
Some of the controversial expenditures include:
- $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia,
- $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru,
- $6 million for tourism development in Egypt,
- Funding for food supplies to militants linked to Al-Qaeda in Syria.
In Georgia, Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili accused USAID on February 3 of interfering in the 2020 elections, claiming that the agency financed false reports about election fraud. He also stated that in 2024, USAID-backed organization ISFED is once again reporting election violations but concealing vote count data. According to Papuashvili, USAID refused to clarify the situation and instead suggested “forgetting the past.”
Meanwhile, in the United States, it was revealed that USAID allocated $20 million to finance the OCCRP in order to gather compromising material on Rudy Giuliani for the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump in 2019.
