This is 100% right.

The CIA greases and amplifies, sometimes organizes, but there are many people who honestly believe that the west is a force for capital G Good. They unironically believe that there is a rules based international order led by Western Europe and Washington.

US cultural hegemony is just that strong.

That’s why any sane country would fight NED just as much as the actual CIA.

It’s ridiculous how normalized it is among Eastern European liberals that liberal journalists get invited to US State Department programs. These same people would concoct the wildest kompromat conspiracy theories if a West-critical journo ever visited the Hermitage or the Great Wall on a vacation.

And that’s why there was a ruckus about NGOs in Georgia.