Revolution in Serbia? Here's the Likely Plot of the US

For years, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), acting as the "white gloves" of the US administration, has been interfering in the internal affairs of other countries by seeking to divide society, mislead public opinion, commit acts of sabotage and propagate ideological education, all under the pretext of promoting democracy, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In the document, the ministry backs up its claim with concrete examples, including detailed instances in Serbia. According to the Serbian website politika.rs, NED is currently laying the ground work for a color revolution in the country.

Illustration (Photo: MTI/AP/Darko Vojinovic )

NED operations in Serbia

The Chinese Foreign Ministry recalls that elections were held in Serbia in April 2022 and December 2023. In both instances, NED interfered in the elections,

doing everything to ensure that a pro-US opposition candidate came to power in the country.

On May 3 last year, a 13-year-old boy killed eight students and a school teacher at an elementary school in Belgrade, and a day later a 21-year-old man killed eight people in a suburb of Belgrade. Taking advantage of the social outrage, 

NED-sponsored NGOs and pro-US opposition groups organized mass demonstrations at the time demanding the ouster of the Serbian government, 

according to the statement by the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry.

However, the left-wing coalition Serbia Against Violence proved unsuccessful and the formation was badly defeated in the December elections. The statement also notes that since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, the NED-funded Belgrade Center for Security Policy has been supporting pro-Western protests in the country and has been a constant critic of Serbia's foreign policy. According to the statement, NED has also been funding various NGOs for a long time in order to generate tension between Serbia and Kosovo. Serbian NGOs funded by the NED, in cooperation with CNN's Serbian branch, have been producing fake news about China and defaming projects undertaken by the eastern giant.

US strategy: Replace Vucic, but how?

Politika.rs recalls that shortly after the publication of the report, US professor and former diplomat Daniel Server said that the protests of the environmental movements are a very important part of the strategy to replace Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

It is worth noting that a few weeks ago in Belgrade, tens of thousands of people protested against lithium mining, with NGO leaders speaking out against the practice on environmental grounds.

Also worth noting is that the projects on lithium extraction were initiated back in 2004 by the Serbian leftist-liberals when they were in power, which they eventually lost and

"suddenly realized" that the exploitation of lithium poses enormous risks to the environment and to human health.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers it important to alert governments and the public to the activities of NED so that they can defend against the organization's attempts at sabotage, in the interests of preserving sovereignty, world peace and international justice. They believe that the world is now moving towards multipolarity and that in the future we must act democratically on the international stage. "Each country has the right to choose the development path that suits its own situation and needs," the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed.

NED is also active in Hungary

NED may be familiar to Hungarian news consumers in connection with the "rolling dollars": according to a national security document on the matter, NED is essentially the overt official presence of the CIA abroad. The data published at the time revealed that, in addition to the HUF 1.8 billion (over EUR 4.5 million) previously admitted to by the opposition's defeated PM candidate Peter Marki-Zay, the opposition received a further HUF 1.2 billion (over EUR 3 million) from the United States. Of the latter amount, more than one billion forints (about EUR 2.5 million) landed at Oraculum 2020. Kft., the publisher of Ezalenyeg.hu, a portal close to the Democratic Coalition (DK) party, nearly 150 million forints (nearly EUR 400,000) went to the DatAdat group of companies tied to Gordon Bajnai, and three million forints (about EUR 7.6 thousand) went to Gemius Hungary Kft.

David Koranyi, adviser to Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, paved the way for the money through the Action for Democracy organization he heads.

The Hungarian secret services investigated Action for Democracy's network of contacts and found that Koranyi's organization was linked to the National Endowment for Democracy. According to information available on the internet, NED has recently supported at least a dozen grants in Hungary for various projects. On several occasions, the US endowment has provided money to combat disinformation here and in the region, but it has also allocated funds to strengthen civil society, to promote freedom of information and to investigate instances of Chinese influence.

Cover photo: Illustration (Photo: MTI/AP/Darko Vojinovic )