This article was submitted by our latest DDG contributor, Viktor.
Geopolitically The Balkans are very important for NATO. It is in the Central-South-East Europe and Mediterranean, halfway from Europe to the West Asia and touches the belly of Russia – that’s the most important.
The US and NATO have far too much invested into their Balkan colonies to simply give them away. Just look at Camp Bondsteel, the largest US Army base in the region, built on stolen land in an unrecognized state. NATO forces flattened a mountain to create a what is essentially the modern day form of a castle, complete with dungeons for the regime’s many enemies.
The diabolical black sites at Camp Bondsteel have been described as a “Little Guantanamo” and it is an open secret that the US holds and routinely tortures dissidents there. Most of these people are held without evidence and without trial. Camp Bondsteel was known as a “black hole” where dissidents would vanish, never to be seen again. They may whitewash it in all the ways they want but the truth will not evaporate.
But aren’t all these states sovereign and independent? The short answer is no.
The most independent and resilient state remains Serbia. The Serbs historically from the Turks’ oppression onward were the rebels and rightly so. In the times were it was too bloody to be totally free and still keep their heads high, they sailed quietly through dangerous times (e.g. from 1999 to 2022 when they had to retreat in the face of Western pressure and sanctions). Even in times like that they kept their freedom and waited for their moment to rise up again to come.
What about the other Balkan’s states? Are they sovereign and free? The current EU and NATO member states are Slovenia, and Croatia, the NATO member states are (North) Macedonia, Montenegro – all of which are also ex republics of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, here we count in also Bosnia and Herzegovina, and while it is not a NATO member state, it is in NATO’s Membership Action Plan. The remaining NATO member states are Albania, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania (the last three are also EU members). But we must not leave out of the equation Moldova which is in special interest to the US and the West at the moment.
Of course, none of the states named above is sovereign and free. The EU and NATO member states in the Balkans are simple vassals of the US. They must follow with no questions asked whatever they are told from Washington or Brussels or face the consequences. The EU countries namely, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania are a second class colonies: Brussels is the colony of the Washington and since Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sofia and Bucharest are subordinate to Brussels it makes them second class colonies.
Leadership of all Balkan countries goes against the will of their people – people want peace in Ukraine and normalization with Russia. But this is the diametric opposite of the foreign policy of the White House to which EU and NATO countries governments are subdued. Information warfare and propaganda from the US and the West elites is therefore very strong to keep the EU nations in ignorance and lies. Alternative media plays very important role to confront the lies and bring the truth to the people. People are not stupid and want the truth.
As the EU starts to falter under the weight of America’s imperial domination, the best bet for Slovenia and Croatia at this moment in history would be to leave NATO and EU. None of these organizations have a significant future. Both are in free fall. It’s just a matter of time before they hit the ground.
It is also not so easy to leave NATO or EU, first alternatives must be built, if possible under the radars of Washington and Brussels. BRICS is the alternative. For the military security of the Balkans’ states it is most important to make their national armies strong and capable of real self-defense. Neither Russia nor China is the threat to the Balkans. The only threat is the US, so it is vitally important to build defense against US aggression. If Italy’s US-backed ruling fascist party gains more support there is a threat to Slovenia and Croatia since the fascists want western parts of those countries under their control in an attempt to reclaim their hero Mussolini’s lost empire.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a hard story. Bosniaks are totally in line with US orders, but Serbs want to be free and connected with their brothers and sisters in Serbia. There might be another war. US will for sure try to detonate it. Republika Srpska should become integral part of Serbia and the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina should became independent state, free from US and EU dominance.
Is it possible? Yes, but the US will not take this lying down. They are already attempting to start another war or color revolution. All the effort should go in the direction of making the parting of Bosnia and Herzegovina as smooth as possible. With any luck, people still have fresh memories of the last war and won’t buy so easily into another.
Montenegro is another US puppet state with a lot of corruption. But people are rebellious and know their history. Montenegrin partisans were among some of the most numerous and effective anti-fascists in Europe, and so the tendency to resist the domination of Mussolini and Hitler’s heirs runs strong. It just might happen that seeing the course of multi-polarity of the world today, the strength of the Russian Federation (military, economy and diplomacy) there would come a government that would turn the ship in the direction of the BRICS, exit NATO and stop looking towards EU.
Albania is in a similar condition but with much stronger inclination towards the West, so it might be much harder for Albania to break away from their bonds with US and European masters. Macedonia (North Macedonia) is another puppet state devastated with poverty and has been driven to desperation. The criminals in NATO are offering them money, and Macedonia is too poor to refuse, despite the strings attached. This is NATO’s usual strategy, immiserate nations through economic warfare, then buy their most pliant criminals for pennies on the dollar.
It has future in economic cooperation with Russia and China and other BRICS countries. CIA and MI6 will try to make civil war between Macedonian Albanians and other Macedonia nations in case the country changes its course. From 1945 onward, Greece has its hands and feet allover in US-EU chains. The country tried to break free unsuccessfully, after the Greek Communists posed one of the most effective resistance organizations in all of Europe during WW2, they were systematically hunted down and exterminated by Greek fascists backed by British forces in the post-war era.
Nevertheless, the resistance movement never died, so there is hope for Greece. With NATO and EU powers diminishing from day to another there is more and more hope for Greece. Again there is future in BRICS and connecting with other Balkan countries.
Bulgaria and Romania can and should become truly sovereign and independent states. It goes similar for them to dislodge from NATO and EU. Both have historical ties with Russia (USSR) and should build their economy and military strength on it. They are at good economical starting point and can find a brighter future with the sane and stable BRICS instead of the NATO warmongers.
Special topic is Moldova since it plays the role of Ukraine 2.0 together with Armenia. US hegemony wants to destabilize and strategically defeat Russia in any way possible, the lives of the Armenian and Moldovan people only count as tools against Russia. Moldova is divided and civil war may break out, with part of the country refusing to accept the illegal dissolution of the USSR, rather continuing on as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, also known as Transnistria.
In further pressure from Moldovan government towards EU and fusion into (not with) Romania – loosing independence and sovereignty, Transnistria and Gaugauzia will secede and after referendums they will become parts of Russian Federation. On the other hand in case Moldova and Armenia follow example of Georgia and defend their genuine national interests, independence and sovereignty they should develop economic ties in the neighborhood and again connect with BRICS countries.
The Balkans except for Serbia (and Republika Srpska) are the vassal states of the US through it’s Brussels proxy. It is up to each nation to decide their destiny. However, if they want a future as anything besides the lapdogs of NATO, the future of the Balkans lies in the BRICS. However, The EU and NATO won’t give up it’s influence and power over any of the Balkan state.
Freedom will come through a fight. Not necessarily through war or wars. But through political struggle of the peoples. What keeps peoples tight are mainly three ropes: personal comfort – until there is material abundance, no one is willing to go to the streets, informational blindness – people are kept in ignorance through MSM and they take lies for truth or distance themselves from action, daily survival – people work hard from day to another to make ends meet and have no time or energy for fight.
The power of alternative media is growing and people are inclined to the truth, people want the truth. Therefore there is hope for a fairer, multi-polar world and prosperous Balkans.
Thanks for the writeup, and good analysis overall.
One point of disagreement I have with the authors is that the status of occupied Kosovo—but also Republika Srpska—function as effective wedge issues, sowing division among natural allies. Any materially grounded perspective favours unity and solidarity among the marginalised peoples of southeastern Europe, systematically excluded by the vicious and systemic Islamophobia and anti-Slavic racism intrinsic to EU institutions. This includes Bosniaks, Serbs, Albanians, Montenegrins, and (North) Macedonians. The pivotal question for the Western Balkans IMO will be this: will they internalise the reactionary and divisive narratives peddled by Imperial actors, or will they reject these and successfully put an end to the half-century Imperial campaign to subjugate the region? If BRICS plays its cards right, it could provide further material incentives for unity. The Open Balkan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Balkan) might be a decent starting template for a local alternative to Brussels domination, but I'm not sufficiently well-informed about this.
The ultranationalist current that still pervades in Serbian politics, which takes maximalist views toward both Kosovo and Republika Srpska, IMO receives insufficient criticism from the international Left. The ultranationalists indirectly serve Western imperial interests by committing to battle along the very faultlines painted over the corpse of Yugoslavia by the Western empire. The rehabilitation of fascist-collaborator Četnik leaders plays right into NATO hands by deepening the wedge between neighbours, and permissiveness toward Bosnian genocide denial pushes Western-backed Islamophobia dangerously close to the mainstream. Serbian leaders would do well to recognise that NATO's geopolitical end, despite the cacophonous braying of the Nafoid racists, isn't to undermine or destroy Serbia in itself, but to destroy unity and solidarity among marginalised peoples. It's no different than what the Empire has done in the Levant, across Africa, in Latin America, in East Asia, in Ukraine, inside the US itself, and pretty much everywhere else.
A more principled position would thus be agnostic toward the ultimate status of both entities, uncompromisingly conditioned on NATO's deoccupation of Kosovo (and of course guarantees for all minorities). The ultranationalists across the Western Balkans play into NATO's hands by making such a position somewhat of a third rail (see the constant reminders of "victims in Kosovo and Metohija" plastered everywhere in Beograd). I'm focusing my criticism on Serbia precisely because of its independence: Serbia is the place where the contradictions are greatest between the incentive to curtail NATO and Western imperialism on the one hand, and the nationalist narrative on the other. A regional war over Republika Srpska is furthermore in the global interests of the Empire because it has the capacity to provide ammunition to Western intelligence agencies that would like to use it as a focal point for driving a wedge between Russia on the one hand and the Islamic world on the other. Ideally, BRICS should play an assertive and decisive role in mending the southern Yugoslav region by creating infrastructure and incentives conducive to cooperation—before the West has the chance to instigate a regional war.
BRICS is the single most important organisation in the World today. If it doesn't carry on its upward trend. It will be a much bigger disaster than the majority of the world could imagine. If it carries on methodically crossing every bridge that it comes to. The whole world is going to change. For the better, for the world's majority. It most likely will effect the wealthy more the rest of the people in the West. Of course the wealthy will do everything possible to pass their losses down to the citizens. But the citizens in the West or most of them have had enough of the wealthy. For all the recent elections in West went against the globalists. Most countries in the West only had more globalists as the opposition. It's not going to take long for the voters to realise they've not & never really had a choice. They'll realise this democracy bullshit they've been fed since birth. Is just another one of the wealthy rulers many lies. This is why the Western rulers are acting in ways against Russia. Most of their own citizens, just can't understand why. The Western elite are very desperate, desperate people do desperate things. The Trump assisination attempt is their latest effort. The computers going down on Friday, the same time Zelensky rang Trump. Has a lot more behind the story than we know.