To be clear, they are rather riot leaders who funded by US than "student group leaders".
The "these people are funded from abroad" rhetoric is employed too often by countries trying to control their population. Without hard evidence I wouldn't trust such things. I Russia, for example it's the number one way to try to discredit anybody who disagrees with the government. Yet the government, which has essentially total control over all spheres of life, has not been able to procure any evidence.
And occasionally you get the amusing conflicting scenario of the local government using the foreign interference rhetoric, while the national government rejects that for its own purposes (not wanting to look weak), as in Russia in Khabarovsk at the moment.