When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed two years later, liberal democracy was supposed to fill the void left by Soviet Communism. Poland and Czechoslovakia made the best of reforms, but the citizens of the “Evil Empire” itself saw little of the promised freedom, and more of the same old despots and corruption.
Recently, a second wave of reforms — Serbia in 2000, Georgia in 2003, and Ukraine in 2004, as well as Kyrgyzstan’s regime change in 2005 — have proven almost as monumental as those in Berlin and Moscow. The people of the Eastern bloc, aided in no small part by Western money and advice, are again rising up and demanding an end to autocracy. And once more, the Kremlin is battling the White House every step of the way.
Mark MacKinnon spent these years working in Moscow, and his view of the story and access to those involved remains unparalleled. With The New Cold War, he reveals the links between these democratic revolutions — and George Soros, the idealistic American billionaire behind them — in a major investigation into the forces that are quietly reshaping the post-Soviet world.
For those wishing to understand the onraging proxy war in Ukraine, this is book by Canadian journalist Mark Mackinnon is indispensable forensic evidence. Published in 2007, Mackinnon details his firsthand encounters with the post cold war, color-coded regime-changes of Serbia, Georgia, and most especially Ukraine. A cold civil war erupted between the autocratic, top-down "managed democracy" of authoritarians like Putin, Lukanshenko, Kuzma, and Milosevic vs. the Western NGO world. At this stage it was not nuclear, but NGO proliferation and the fungible cash behind it, that outgunned the authoritarians, with democracy itself the clear loser on every side.
The genesis of this was, of course, the desire for NATO expansion. Mackinnon traces it to Zbegniew Brzezinski's "grand chessboard" strategy of detaching Ukraine from Moscow's orbit specifically to neuter Russia as any kind of great power. Note this was articulated in 1997 - before the rise of Putin, with Western ally Yeltsin just placed in power with no small dose of Western help. The emergence of Vladimir Putin was aided by the rise of this Western consensus. Putin's assertiveness in turn galvanized "democracy promotion" to achieve full-spectrum US dominance across Europe.
Despite disgust at authoritarian state manipulation in the affected "regimes," Mackinnon shows that the opposition would have gotten nowhere without foreign (EU and US) backed cashflow, advisors, and materiel, organizing the very opposition groups themselves in an ironic imitation of "Red subversion." And the scope of this aid was kaleidoscopic and breathtaking: NED, the Soros Foundation, institutes here and foundations there, grooming pro-Western personalities like Ukraine's Viktor Yuschenko as new-regime leaders to guide their nations into the EU and NATO. So coordinated was this move that even the same personalities involved in Serbia and Georgia were on hand for Ukraine. Successes there were seen as green lights for Kiev.
The resulting Orange Revolution is covered in meticulous detail, beginning in 2003 with Yuschenko's first courting date early that year. Though 2004 eventually fizzled, it was the precursor of the successful Round Two of Maidan 2014, in turn the precursor of Proxy War 2022. If one really wants to understand the process, Mackinnon's reportage is essential in proving the charge that Western "democracy-promotion", as a tool of NATO expansion, was itself the aggressor in the new cold war; designed, in the cases of Georgia and Ukraine, to block Russia's re-emergence from its 1990s weakness.
Energy needs were also the second leg of this expansion, hence Mackinnon's subtitle of "pipeline politics." Russia's rise as an energy power in Europe was its principal subversion of US/NATO domination - the true battlefield weapon. Internal regime course-change was essential to reverse oil and gas streams. Blowing up the Nordstream lines was the ultimate fruit of this seed. Thus the straight line between Mackinnon's on-the-spot history and your CNN newsfeed. Note the same ones trumpeting Ukraine's "need to win", "to save European democracy," are the same actors who began this chorus twenty years ago, creating war clouds out of once-clear skies..
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) yani Demokrasi için ulusal bağış diye çevirebileceğim ajans ABD hükümeti tarafından desteklenmektedir. Eski Sovyetlerdeki seçimlerde batı yanlısı adayları desteklediler, bağımsız medyayı ve gençlik gruplarını finanse ettiler. NED’den bağış alan STÖ’ler (Sivil Toplum Örgütleri) Sırbistan, Gürcistan ve Ukrayna’daki ayaklanmalar sırasında aktif durumdaydılar.
NED, 1990’larda Haiti’nin demokratik seçimlerle göreve gelen ilk devlet başkanı Jean-Bertrand Aristide’yi devirmeye çalışan gruplara arka çıkmıştı. Küba’da Fidel Castro ve Venezüela’da Hugo Chavez’e karşı olan kurumları destekledi. Chavez, NED’in, Venezüela seçimlerini gözlemleyen Sumate adlı sivil toplum örgütüne 31bin usd verdiğini belgelerle kanıtlamıştı.
National Democratic Institute (NDI-Ulusal Demokrat Enstitü) ABD’deki Demokrat Parti’nin uluslararası kanadıdır. Sırbistan, Gürcistan ve Ukrayna’daki ayaklanmaları düzenleyen Batı yanlısı güçlerin kilit pozisyonunda rol alır. NED tarafından desteklenen kuruluşun başında krizlere kişisel müdahaleleriyle tanınan ABD eski dışişleri bakanı Madeleine Albright yer alır.
NED'in desteklediği sivil toplum örgüleri arasında George Soros'un kurduğu Open Society Institute (Açık Toplum Enstitüsü) yer alır.
Güzel bir araştırmacı gazetecilik örneği sundan Mark Mackinnon'un kitabını herkese tavsiye ediyorum.
Anyone who doubts the significance petroleum plays in the most recent conflict between the Republic of Georgia and Russia need look no further than the subtitle of this book -- Revolutions, Rigged Elections, and Pipeline Politics in the Former Soviet Union. The pipeline in question is the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC)and it would not have been built without the financial and military support and backing of the USA.
When it came on line on May 25, 2005, the BTC pipeline was the longest and most expensive ever constructed. It was built at a cost of $3.6 billion. Is it any wonder that the USA supports Georgia in its most recent clash with Russia?
If you want to learn the real reason Bush backs Georgia, begin with this well-documented book. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to better understand the significance petroleum plays in world politics.
Canadian writer's view of the various undemocratic ways that western nations "spread democracy" in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. MacKinnon shares many insights that western media never bothered to tell us about.
This book is actually very interesting to me. I don't know why I'm fascinated with Russia, but I am. I figure, I'd better read up for the cold war that is starting up all over again.
This is a good book, by reporter with first had experience. If you're interested in the status of politics in the republics of the old Soviet Union, I recommend it.