RFE

But RFE/RL's president and CEO Stephen Capus said axing the broadcaster's grant agreement "would be a massive gift to America's enemies".

"The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years," he added.

Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said RFE/RL, based in Prague, "is one of the few credible sources in dictatorships like Iran, Belarus, and Afghanistan".

Elon Musk, in charge of cost-cutting under Donald Trump, dismissed RFE/RL as "radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money".

RFE/RL says it reaches a weekly audience of nearly 50 million people in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan and ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus.