[This is an AI translation of the original article published in Serbian at politika.rs, corrections and editing by the author]
Germany, Great Britain and France want to continue the war in Ukraine because they have proxy regimes, which are connected to the Democratic Party in the US and representatives of Obama and Biden policies.
This interview was originally published in Serbian at politiko.rs.
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It was NATO’s first official war against a sovereign country and was waged in conjunction with criminal elements from the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, which cooperated with American and German intelligence. This is how Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics at the University of Ottawa and founder of the Center for Globalization Research, spoke about the event in an interview with “Politika” on the eve of the 26th anniversary of the beginning of NATO’s aggression against Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The media played a very important role, they were accomplices – emphasizes Chossudovsky, who was awarded the Medal of Merit of the Republic of Serbia in 2014 for his work on NATO’s war of aggression against our country. He recalls that at the time he was writing for “Le Monde Diplomatique”, but that he terminated that cooperation when the editorial staff refused to publish an article presenting evidence that Hashim Thaci has a criminal record, says Chosudovsky, who is in Serbia as a guest of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals.
How should we view these events from today’s perspective?
They attacked Serbia, or rather the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, under the pretext of humanitarian intervention, with strong condemnation and demonization of Slobodan Milošević, but also of the entire people. I started to deal with Yugoslavia earlier, in the context of what was happening to its economy during the 1980s. This led to what was called a civil war. But it was not a civil war.
There were two elements that I think were crucial, one was the Western media and how they lied and covered up the crimes committed by NATO forces.
The other element is the so-called Left, the “progressive” parties, both in the US and in Western Europe. They even portrayed the KLA as “freedom fighters”, they went so far as to quote Marx or Lenin in this context.
They even said that the KLA was connected to organized crime, but they justified it by saying that they needed money to carry out the revolution.
The propaganda machinery behind all of this was carefully organized.
Weapons confiscated from the KLA, July 1999 (Public Domain)
Was it then, at the end of the 20th and the beginning of this century, when all this was happening in Serbia, that the power of that machinery and the West was at its peak?
If you look at the chronology of events in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the answer is – yes, it was. And it wasn’t limited to the end of the Cold War. There were changes in the United Nations system to accommodate this form of interventionism. They directed the same economic policies against Latin America as they did against Russia or Ukraine, for example.
And against Serbia, that is, Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, the peak of the economic crisis was in January 1990, in Poland in 1989, the so-called Big Bang, in Peru and Nicaragua in the early 1990s.
And we don’t talk about Peru, for example, often because it was supposedly a democracy, not a military government. But it was far worse than anything you could imagine under a military government. The price of fuel increased 31 times overnight, which triggered economic and social devastation. .
We are witnessing the introduction of fundamental global changes, announced after the victory of President Donald Trump in the United States elections, with Washington’s readiness to negotiate with Moscow to achieve peace in Ukraine. Can it be said that the world is today closer to World War III or to emerging from the most serious crisis since the end of the Cold War?
This is not an easy question. There are several positive aspects regarding the negotiations with Russia. But they have also imposed sanctions on Russia, and the fact that they refuse to withdraw from Russian territory, I mean Kursk.
The other dimension is that they refuse to acknowledge in the media is that Ukraine is run by a Nazi government. With Zelensky as a Russian Jew who does not even speak Ukrainian, and he is supported by a Nazi regime. These contradictions will have to be resolved at some point, as well as the fact that there was a US sponsored coup d’état in 2014.
I have experienced two military coups in my life Chile in 1973 and Argentina in 1976, both of which were sponsored by the United States. In many regards, they were less devastating in comparison to February 2014 U.S. Coup d’Etat against Ukraine.
Today we have much more information about what happened. We know about the telephone call from Victoria Nuland to the US ambassador in Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt. That conversation was leaked and made public.
The bitter irony is that this 2014 US coup was supportive of two Nazi parties, Svoboda and Right Sector, which broadly originated in World War II during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalist (OUN) actively collaborated with the Wehrmacht and Nazi Germany’s occupation forces. The OUN was involved in the murder of Jews, namely the Holocaust as well as the concentration camps.
Protester performs on the roof of burned “Berkut” bus. The barricade across Hrushevskoho str. Kyiv, 10 February 2014. (Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)
Another element of the negotiations that brings us back to the beginning is that Russia will not allow NATO to expand so close to its borders.
But what we have now is a combination of economic and armed conflict. One of the obstacles, as you suggested in your question, is that Germany, Great Britain and France now want to continue the war. Why?
This is based on the fact that these three countries have proxy regimes, which are supported and controlled by powerful financial interests. And the the politicians are corrupt.
It is also important to note that these three governments have worked hand in glove with the representatives of the Obama and Biden adminstrations, who refused to accept the restoration of diplomatic relations with Russia.
I do not think that they have changed, they are connected with the Democratic Party in the USA. They are still led by the USA, but not through the policies of Donald Trump, but by the Democratic Party. The entire European Union is still dollarized, both the EU itself and the individual members states. They are victims of American foreign policy.
Three personalities are connected with powerful financial interests. Keir Starmer, who led his election campaign in the Swiss Alps, that is, Davos (2024). Emmanuel Macron is a former employee of the Rothschilds. The issue of Germany is crucial. All three of these people are traitors to their countries. And Olaf Scholz is more than a traitor, because he allowed the destruction of Nord Stream 2.
Did you once consider Joseph Biden’s messages that there would be no more Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline an act of war against Europe?
This was not a secret operation, Biden and Scholz announced at a White House press conference, if Russia intervenes.
Legally speaking, the attack on Nord Stream is an act of war. But with regard to Scholz, it was treason. Other leaders have also worked against the people of Europe. An economic war was taking place, and the difference is that allies from other European and NATO countries were used to impoverish Europe and destroy European identity.
Perhaps that is why President Trump is a little confused, because he finds it difficult to understand what was happening in the previous period. And now, after the Nord Stream issue, three countries (UK, are on the way to declaring war on Russia.
All this while they are victims of an economic war against Europe, the goal of which is to impoverish the people. Even in a military sense, the attack on Nord Stream is an act of war, because it is located in the territorial waters of several European countries. And it was a deliberate act by the former US president.
Isn’t Russia the only target of this war?
The US is also a war against the EU. We know this from dollarization, whose exponent is Head of EU Central Bank Christine Lagarde, who also has a criminal record. The US prefers people with criminal records because it is much easier to negotiate with them. Such are Netanyahu, Lagarde, or Thaci. There is also the criminal record of General Michael Jackson, which is rarely mentioned. He was the commander-in-chief during the Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.
The real question is why does NATO hire a person who killed civilians and who has a criminal record. He was active even before he came to Kosovo in 1999, he was in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in Croatia. This happened under the command of NATO, but in some situations also the UN.
When you look at today’s world situation, how do you assess the independent and sovereign policy that Serbia has been pursuing in the last decade? Does it cause dissatisfaction among Western powers and could it be a trigger for a so-called color revolution?
That is a difficult question and I would not like to interfere in the internal politics of Serbia. However, I think that people in Serbia need to understand history and the situation today, which is very serious, especially from an economic point of view. People in Serbia are being impoverished, the younger generations do not remember what Yugoslavia looked like. Many do not understand this, as do people in Europe in general.
This is a consequence of the neoliberal agenda, imposed in the late 1980s. The country was destroyed and torn apart on purpose. That is when I started analyzing the economy of Yugoslavia and understood how catastrophic the consequences were. I had access to an internal World Bank document that described a pattern of destruction of the economy, specifically the industrial sector of Yugoslavia in a very short time.
How?
More than 600,000 people lost their jobs, the social system was destroyed, and previously Yugoslavia was a very progressive state, although non-aligned. People need to understand that, what a problem of poverty it created, with the lack of medical care and everything else…
In the 1960s, as a student, I decided with colleagues from what is now the University of Rotterdam to visit the country and examine the Yugoslav model. I had an eye-opening experience, I got sick and went to see a doctor. I asked him how much I owed him for his services, and he replied – nothing, we in Yugoslavia provide health care to people who visit our country.
Today, the state does not always provide health care to its own citizens as previously. To use the terminology of neoliberals, there is a need for a change of regime. But not in terms of an individual, but in terms of a system, something based on the IMF, the World Bank…
What is the role of the NGOs and Corporate Foundations?
Several NGOs, but more significantly corporate foundations and philanthropies have provided financial support to protest movements. This has happened in Serbia. But in fact it is a Worldwide process whereby social movements as well as politicians are coopted. These philantropic entities including the Open Society Foundation, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, etc. which are key actors within the financial establishment
One of the key such movements was “Occupy Wall Street”, and it was financed by Wall Street.
People who participate in the protests are not aware who is financing them. Many progressive organizations including the World Social Forum are financed by Wall Street. This practice began in Brazil in 2000, and that organization, namely the WSF was financed by the Ford Foundation.
We could call it “manufactured dissent”, in contrast Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s concept, which is entitled manufactured consent. Those who finance these protests have control over them, and any attempt to investigate it results in censorship. How can you wage a rotest movement against Wall Street and then ask Wall Street to pay for your travel expenses.
The situation in our region has not calmed down completely, even almost three decades after the wars of the 1990s. The recent verdict against the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, by the Bosniak authorities in Sarajevo is one example of the new escalation of tensions. What do you consider to be crucial for the security of the region?
I cannot answer that question without saying that your country has been under “neoliberal occupation” since the early 2000s. It’s economic warfare against Serbia.
The goal was to impoverish and privatize, and the origins of that strategy date back to the late 1980s.
And the growth of GDP emanates from further privatization and foreign investment. A debate is needed on how to modify this economic model. But that is not an easy task, because foreign creditors who are carrying out these neoliberal policies, are involved in manipulating the protest movement as well as the government. .
No matter how much people protest, they should understand their history. I cannot comment on internal politics, but I think that the prerequisite for the development of Serbia is the fact that you are now starting from scratch. Your country was completely and deliberately destroyed.
Do you think that those who destroyed Serbia are also creating tensions in the region?
Yes, That is the mechanism, once you start introducing a neoliberal agenda, everything is based on the insiduous role of the creditors who destroyed your country.
That affects monetary policy and social policy. The country is still under that influence.
I am sure that President Vučić understands that logic and is concerned about it. The statement he made earlier about the situation in Ukraine is also very important. And when it comes to the protest movement, it does not have to be directed at individual personalisitesfigures in the Serbian political system in this situation.
But that act of war against Yugoslavia led to the post-war state. And it has established control mechanisms. The people of Serbia need to understand what is happening and not allow NGOs to work against the country.
The last quarter of a century has been the post-war era for Serbia and the question is not who fought the war on the ground, but who controls and who pulled the strings, and they are still there today. You cannot restore Yugoslavia, but perhaps you can recover Serbia on the model that existed before the 1980s. In other words, there was World War II, and the Serbs also had World War III.
Tensions are not calming down in Kosovo and Metohija, where the Pristina regime of Albin Kurti is daily confronting the Serbian people. It has been doing so since the elections held on February 9. Is this difficult to imagine without the support of certain powerful international factors?
That territory is not a sovereign state, it is a province of Serbia. It was occupied by NATO’s KFOR appointed General Michael Jackson, who happens to have a criminal record in the United Kingdom.
Image: Madeleine Albright and KLA leader Hashim Thaci
It was led by former KLA leader Hashim Thaci, who then became Prime Minister and President.
Thaci has a criminal record, he was involved in drug trafficking. He should have been And only after 20 years was he sent to The Hague for crimes committed in the 1990s.
I think now is an opportunity, especially under Trump, to raise the issue of closing the U.S. Bond Steel Military base. It is essentially a US base. Trump wants to reduce military spending, and it is a large military base, expensive to maintain.
The problem is that the West gave Pristina a police force, and even a fake army. They are a threat to security, and will they remain on the ground?
That fake government should be abolished. not impossible to abolish them. It is also necessary to point out that the Kosovo Albanians were victims of American crimes. Antagonism has been created. This does not refer to the era of Yugoslavia, but to the rights of the Serbian state to which the province belongs. Kosovo was also bombed the most in 1999.
It is difficult for some future representatives of Kosovo to admit this, but it is necessary. To admit facts, such as the fact that many children from Kosovo got cancer after the bombing, or that the beginnings of the so-called Kosovo as a state are clearly based on crime.
The US destroyed the cultural heritage of the countries in which it fought.
Five years after the NATO aggression in Kosovo and Metohija, a pogrom occurred, the 21st anniversary of which is March 17. How well do you think the Western public is aware of these events and the fact that Serbs are still facing constant threats two decades later?
I can say from the work I have done in several countries that the Americans attacked cultural heritage in the countries where they fought. They did this in Iraq, Syria, and even Germany at the end of World War II. And that is a way to erase the identity of that people and state, and that is a crime against humanity.
If you look at it from the perspective of international law, it is a war crime, it is directed against civilians, not against a military base. The problem is that Western public opinion is not sufficiently informed about history. In World War II, 90 percent of Warsaw was destroyed, and then cities in Germany as well.
Although the Germans destroyed Warsaw, the ideology is the same. What is interesting is that in Poland everything was rebuilt, based on the plans they had, something similar happened in Berlin, Dresden, they had precise plans and photographs. Rebuilding destroyed monuments is very important, and Serbs have been present in Kosovo since the Middle Ages.
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