Serbia: Colour Revolution Foiled

belgrade-city-hall

03-01-2024: You can almost set your watch to it. In almost any country which is not totally and completely subservient and compliant to every whim of the ruling classes of the West, Western deep state operatives will seek to interfere with the electoral process. This may take the form of creating and funding whole new pro-EU (European Union) and pro-US (United States of America) parties out of whole cloth, funding an array of pro-Western “civil society” NGOs, corrupting existing opposition parties, or triggering street violence to enact regime change. This is happening with regularity now in Asia, Africa and Latin America, but most recently it was the turn of the Balkan state of Serbia. Yet Serbia was this time prepared for such an outcome. In the aftermath of the launch of the Special Military Operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine in March 2022, Serbia’s Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin warned of just such a scenario – the possibility of a “Maidan-style” coup.

No second Maidan

At the time Vulin stated that the Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014 was where Ukraine lost its democracy, and where thugs from the Right Sector and other Nazi organisations overthrew the elected government.[1] This would be repeated in Serbia, he claimed, not because of Serbian elections, but because President Aleksandar Vucic refused to impose sanctions on Russia (over the Special Military Operation in Ukraine) and decided to maintain Serbia’s military neutrality. In reality, it was not only Serbia’s refusal to endorse NATO’s (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) arming of Nazi battalions in Ukraine to fight Russia which triggered a Western backed colour revolution attempt against them. It was also Serbia’s refusal to recognise the Western backed “Kosovo Republic”, which in practice amounts to an illegal secession of Kosovo and Metohija.[2] Towards the end of 2022, the US state pumped up tensions between Kosovo and Serbia as a means to distract from the Nazified forces in Ukraine suffering significant setbacks at the hands of Russia’s military. However, due to Serbia’s non-recognition of any declaration of a break-away, both the United Nations (UN) and the EU have refused to recognise an “independent” Kosovo.[3]

This time there was no “second Maidan”. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated that the events in Serbia during December was an obvious attempt by the collective West to destabilise the situation through a Maidan coup.[4] The US government can hardly claim to have no involvement, as the US Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill bragged that the American Embassy had 14 teams spread across Serbia and Belgrade.[5] The pro-Western opposition was thrown into a coalition of parties under a ticket name of “Serbia Against Violence” (SPN) – which in itself is a giveaway about who was behind it. In the snap December 17 elections, the governing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won 46.72% of the votes, with SPN coming second with 23.56% of the vote, and the Socialist Party of Serbia third with 6.56%.[6] However, the pro-Western SPN claimed that the results were fraudulent, and that President Vucic had stolen the election. On December 24 the SPN and their supporters attempted to break into the Belgrade Town Hall where the local election commission is based, but they were pushed back at around 10pm by anti-riot police.

Capitalising on mass shootings

The same day the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic expressed gratitude to the Russian security services, which had forewarned Belgrade of plans for riots in the capital following the election.[7] President Aleksandar Vucic, in an emergency address to the nation blamed the unrest on foreign interference. He said the claims that the government manipulated the elections are “rubbish and lies, [and that] the ones who swore to fight against violence just confirmed once again that they are the real thugs…”.[8] Supposedly, SPN was formed in response to two mass shootings in Serbia in May, and weekly Saturday evening vigils held since that time. Yet the horror at these shootings was simply used as a cover for the pro-Western parties to push for regime change to push back Serbia’s “pro-Russia” positions. President Vucic claimed that the SPN led opposition groups are not about an end to violence at all, and in fact want him toppled by force or even killed.[9]

Some of the parties that make up the SPN, such as the Freedom and Justice Party, the People’s Movement of Serbia and the Green Left Front/Ne Davimo Beograd[10] have innocuous sounding names – but have no qualms about taking part in riots on the streets to achieve their aims. This is a tell-tale sign of the backing of the deep states of imperialism, particularly the EU and the US. While it is certainly true that both the SPN and the governing SNS are both pushing for Serbia to integrate into the EU,[11] President Vucic is attempting to do so while also co-operating with Russia, and by extension, the rising BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) alliance. The BRICS bloc will expand in 2024 to include Saudia Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia – becoming the “BRICS 10”. While President Vucic and the SNS may wish to tip-toe a line between the EU/US and the BRICS powers, Brussels and Washington can barely tolerate other countries co-operating with BRICS, as it once again exposes the declining fortunes of the West and their faltering capitalist economies.

Working people in Serbia and internationally need to defend the right of all nations to join and/or engage in friendly relations with the BRICS 10, which is clearly a non-imperialist bloc anchored by the gargantuan manufacturing, scientific and technological power of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It is also necessary to defend Serbia against US government led attempts at regime change, colour revolutions (which are the opposite of revolutionary) and encouraging Kosovan separatism. Serbia has cultural ties to Russia, a fellow Slavic nation, and it has also suffered the horrors of a NATO war against it in 1999. Vucic’s plan to stay the hand of imperialism by balancing cooperation with the BRICS while seeking to join the EU will unfortunately not end Western attempts to overthrow Serbia. This requires the bringing down of imperialism in the West via the working classes raising themselves to positions of power, alongside a proletarian political revolution in the PRC – the world’s most powerful bureaucratically deformed workers’ state. This path to bona fide socialism requires the forging of genuine Leninist vanguard parties throughout the Balkans, Eurasia and internationally.

WORKERS LEAGUE

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

[1] www.rt.com/news/553139-serbia-maidan-elections-sanctions/ (01-01-2024)

[2] www.globalresearch.ca/kosovo-situation-prospects/5824118 (01-01-2024)

[3] www.redfireonline.com/2022/11/28/us-primes-kosovo-for-tension-with-serbia/ (01-01-2024)

[4] www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/274075672/attempted-color-revolution-in-serbia-what-we-know-so-far (01-01-2024)

[5] www.rferl.org/a/serbia-snap-parliamentary-municipal-vote-vucic-kosovo/32734334.html (01-01-2024)

[6] www.reuters.com/world/europe/thousands-protest-belgrade-demand-elections-annulled-2023-12-24/ (01-01-2024)

[7] www.rt.com/news/589632-serbia-thanks-russian-spies/ (01-01-2024)

[8] www.bbc.com/news/business-67817072 (01-01-2024)

[9] www.apnews.com/article/serbia-protest-vucic-mass-shootings-36dea9b009a5fbbe90e4f97a2296e71d (01-01-2024)

[10] www.bnnbreaking.com/politics/serbia-against-violence-a-nations-cry-for-change/ (01-01-2024)

[11] www.globalresearch.ca/dragana-trifkovic-us-coordinating-actions-serbian-government-serbian-opposition/5844483 (01-01-2024)