I read the article that Basil77 linked to and I actually believe the points they are making.
It is impossible to ignore the evidence - I've seen it in media almost daily and I have known people who have had internship (well paid!) with some of the organisations mentioned, in the 1990s. The scenario reads like a conspiracy theory, but it's actually not.

I wonder what normal Americans would think about their country meddling in this way overseas, while neglecting their own citizens at home. I am guessing 95% haven't got any idea of what's going on.

Quote Originally Posted by http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/12/wall-street-vs-russia.html
Conclusion It is quite clear that the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, the Foreign Policy Initiative, and even the US State Department whose new foreign affairs advisory board is full of think-tanks representing overt corporate-financier interests, are not interested in "democracy," "human rights," or "freedom" in Russia, but rather removing the Kremlin out of the way, and reestablishing the parasitic feeding on the Russian people and its economy they enjoyed after the fall of the Soviet Union.