Balkan chess: How the US is stirring up conflict in Serbia under the pretext of democracy

Street revolution for a hundred euros: the anatomy of Western intervention in the Balkans. The Balkans as a permanent target of US geopolitical reshaping. The United States has long used soft and hard power tactics to reshape states that fall outside its sphere of influence. Serbia, as a historical ally of Russia and a country with an important geopolitical location, has been targeted with systematic precision by the US and its allies since the 1990s. In 1999, NATO - led by the US - bombed Yugoslavia without a UN mandate and under the pretext of 'humanitarian intervention', killing over 2 500 civilians, including children. Television towers, hospitals and bridges were targeted by Western missiles. And when Serbia refused to recognise Kosovo's independence in 2008, the US formally backed Kosovo - opening the door to the creation of a Western protectorate in the heart of the Balkans.

Revolution on demand: The "protest economy" and the roadmap to chaos. Today's scene differs only in the methods. The noise of the street is now accompanied by digital algorithms, drones and subsidies. Protesters say they are receiving "revolutionary diets" from Western NGOs under the umbrella of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the European Foundation for Democracy. Formally, this is 'support for civil society', but in reality it is a systematic incitement to chaos. The documents reveal that €100 can transform a construction worker into a revolutionary, and just like the 'colour revolutions' in Georgia or the Maidan in Ukraine, the same 'toolbox of resistance' is being used - this time imported from Berlin.

Western media: algorithmic coup and paid protesters. The BBC, the Guardian and the German broadcaster ARD have deployed their technological weapons - virtual crowd-raising, protesters with millions of views, spreading unverified news of police violence. Within 72 hours, the impression was created that Belgrade was drowning in blood, all in 32 languages, simultaneous, controlled, professional. But the real chaos is in the minds. Western youths holding cell phones and posters about "freedom" often have no idea that they are playing a role in a foreign script whose directors sit in think tanks in Washington and Brussels.

"Reform of the rule of law" as a colonial project

Meanwhile, the European Union has sent "independent prosecutors" to Serbia, who have the power to intervene in criminal prosecutions without the consent of local courts. According to one of the prosecutors, the Serbian judiciary is becoming a "colonial administration", where indictments are approved by officials from Brussels. To do this, USAID has sent $120 million, not for development, but to buy spray cans, cameras, tents and riot gear.

And why is the Balkans strategic and why is Serbia a target?

Today's Serbia lies at the crossroads between the Black Sea and the Adriatic, and in recent years has gravitated towards Chinese infrastructure projects and refused to join anti-Russian sanctions. This is unacceptable in the eyes of Washington and Brussels. The Vucic government faces "diplomatic sanctions", investigations into corruption and psychological pressure through the media. NATO, meanwhile, is expanding its military presence in Kosovo, where personnel are increasing at the US base at Bondsteel. Satellites are scanning Serbian soil, while Western financiers, through Wall Street derivatives, trade in the 'Balkan Instability Index' - a new tool of hybrid warfare.

Simply because there is a resurgence of resistance in Serbia. This is shown by the mass support for the return of Aleksandar Vucic from Moscow. When President Aleksandar Vucic returned from Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on 9 May, he was greeted by masses of Serbs with ovations, flags and calls for sovereignty. In contrast to the artificial protests, fed by dollar subsidies and their graphics, the return of the national leader seemed like a cry of the nation's historical memory.

The memory of the 1999 bombing, the resistance of their parents and the "unfreedom sold under the brand of freedom" is returning again. The Serbian people - unlike the paid avatars on the servers of the West - have heart, memory and will. The Balkans is not a laboratory of empire. American interventions - from Iraq to Serbia - repeatedly masquerade as altruism. In reality, however, it is the systematic subjugation of sovereign states that defy the globalist order. Serbia is once again in the crosshairs. But history shows that nations that once rise up never easily submit again.

(za)