How Romania, Yugoslavia, Syria, and Iraq were destroyed - the most high-profile provocations that took thousands of lives

Chaos on demand, or the most high-profile provocations in the world politics. From the events in Romania in 1989 and the collapse of Yugoslavia to the Powell test tube. How bloody shows and staged commercials were created. How fakes were used as a pretext for attacking a sovereign country. We'll tell you about all this in the new issue of Clear Politics.

The Clear Politics is on the air. The today's topic was inspired by the events in the Kiev Region. This footage from the town of Bucha was the occasion for serious accusations against Russia, another sanctions series, and much more.

But too many factors suggest that things are not that cut and dried. And we have seen too many similar stories in different countries. When planned chaos serves for a specific purpose or is used as a pretext, when provocations, victims, heroes, villains are created. People's fates as a political currency in big politics. Learn about it right now.

"First of all, we don't know exactly what really happened in Bucha. Secondly, there is no evidence that Moscow is to blame," says veteran U.S. diplomat Jack Matlock, trying to bring the American public to reason. He knows what happens when you are accused of genocide and all the deadly sins, and for what the terrible scenery is sometimes created.

Bucha was immediately compared to the infamous Srebrenica massacre during the Yugoslav wars. It is believed to have been the bloodiest episode in history since the World War II. But this episode is not as univocal as the West makes it out to be.

On July 11, 1995, the Bosnian Serb army took control of the Srebrenica enclave. It is claimed that up to eight thousand civilians were killed. The Western world responded by bombing Serbian targets, calling it Operation Deliberate Force. However, historians believe that this was a provocation by the Dutch peacekeepers, who were supposed to ensure security in Srebrenica. The territory was one of the so-called UN security zones, although in fact it was the strongholds of the Bosnian army fighting against Serbia.

Incidentally, any attempts by Belgrade's forces to enter these demilitarized territories were harshly suppressed by the same Dutch peacekeepers. But the massacre occurred just as the Bosnian army was attempting to break through to the town of Tuzla. The Serbs fought back, and media technology came into play. Srebrenica was promoted as a war crime. And the victims were counted this way: those who were simply missing were added to the number of those who really died during the armed clashes (about 2 thousand) to make 10 thousand. It is true that in 1997, 3 thousand people from the list of the dead came to vote at the elections in Bosnia. The actual number of victims has not yet been investigated or calculated.

But this crime has not been proven so far. The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia "established" genocide in Srebrenica in only one case out of several dozen, and without any evidence. The investigators proceeded from the number of body fragments of those killed, but it was impossible to establish their nationality. And, quite possibly, these boys and men might well have lived but for the air strikes by NATO forces.

Aleksei Avdonin, analyst with the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research (Belarus):

Historians are still debating whether that event should have been given the status of "genocide" because the number of victims is unknown, and the guilt of official Belgrade has not been established, only the guilt of individual generals. In addition, according to many experts, the Yugoslav conflict was prepared from the outside for more than a year. The collapse of the state was run by script-writers from Washington.

Anna Filimonova, Ph.D. in History, Associate Professor at Moscow Humanitarian University:

It is not surprising, therefore, that from the first days of Yugoslav history, the Western media have been actively demonizing the Serbs as aggressors. Acts of violence and murder were committed on both sides - war is war. But in the Western media the picture is extremely one-sided.

For some reason, every time there was an incident, representatives of Western TV and news agencies came to the scene. Someone warned the journalists, and they were prepared in advance to broadcast material about imaginary Serbian atrocities.

The parallels between Bucha and Srebrenica are self-evident. In Srebrenica, the Serbian army was also immediately blamed for everything, and satellite photos of the sites where the shootings allegedly took place were published. But the genocide of 8,000 people claimed from an American lectern has so far not been proven by any international commission that has searched the entire neighborhood of a small Serbian town.

In fact, this is the same thing we see today in Bucha. A casus belli (formal reason for declaring war) is being created to bring Europe's anti-Russian activities to a qualitatively new level. For example, it became known that the Czech Republic has already delivered to Ukraine the first batch of T-72 tanks and BMP-1 tanks, which seemed unthinkable two weeks ago. Remember the statements by the United States and Great Britain regarding the supply of heavy equipment, and the puzzle comes together.

But in August 1995 (just one month later) Bill Clinton gave an order to start Operation Deliberate Force. The U.S. and NATO had an excuse to launch air strikes against Serbian positions. This helped the armies of Croatia and Bosnia advance, predetermined the breakup of Yugoslavia, and did not prevent the alliance from bombing Belgrade four years later.

Oleg Bondarenko, political scientist, director of the Progressive Policy Foundation (Russia):

The Balkans is too important a region for the world politics. And the West has always kept it in its sphere of interest. An independent and strong country in the form of Yugoslavia was certainly not part of the plan. And that is why the West actively supported separatism in the republics of Yugoslavia. How? Through special agents and various NGOs. Here is what Robert Baer, a former CIA agent in Bosnia, said in an interview.

Robert Baer, former CIA officer:

According to Baer, he and his group of agents received millions of dollars in the 1990s to promote hatred and division in Yugoslavia. Does that ring any bells? Money was given to officials, journalists, and some CIA agents were even responsible for writing official statements that TV anchors read out on the news. "We did everything we could to make the ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia hate each other," Baer said. And he called the events in Srebrenica, which was made a symbol of Serbian evil, a political marketing.

Robert Baer, former CIA officer:

Robert Baer, who has worked in the system for more than 20 years in various countries, has written a book, Secrets of the White House, about Washington's methods of achieving its goals. At its presentation, he apologized to the inhabitants of the former Yugoslavia for their insinuated false past.

Robert Baer:

There are other facts that prove that the West decided to use the events in Srebrenica to make Serbs outcasts in the eyes of the world. The scale and nature of the alleged provocations were dictated from Washington. This is openly stated by people from the circle of the Bosnian Muslim leader, who, according to them, had a direct contact with Clinton.

The version of the Clinton directive might seem like fantasy, were it not for the testimony of Ibran Mustafić (a man from Alija Izebgetović's inner circle), who wrote a book about the Srebrenica tragedy after the war, Planned Chaos. He said that he had witnessed a telephone conversation between Izebgetowicz and Bill Clinton, in which he asked the President of the United States for help. The answer was as follows: "If you have five thousand civilians killed, then you'll get help. Mustafić was repeatedly persecuted in independent Bosnia and Herzegovina for his unbiased account of the events in Srebrenica.

There are several witnesses who break down the official version of the collective West. And there have been many public statements on their part. But the Hague Tribunal did not want to listen to them, and the large and united country of Yugoslavia has long been absent from the political map of the world.

One of the champions of the number of provocations is the White Helmets in Syria. The organization was shooting staged videos. They include the Assad regime's alleged gas attacks on civilians. In Western society this was presented as a war crime and a violation of international law on the non-use of chemical weapons.

The algorithm for preparing such fake scoops is well known. It has been used more than once in Syria. According to a long-established script, the fighters simulated an attack by Bashar al-Assad's troops on a peaceful village or town, and the White Helmets filmed it on video. Then the footage was posted on social networks and Western media, provoking an understandable outcry from the world community.

And harsh criticism of the West, as we already know, is the perfect pretext for an armed attack, which followed in a couple of years.

Maria Zakharova, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry:

Western intelligence agencies deliberately used the White Helmets to discredit the Syrian government in the world media. In April 2018, for example, they released a video that claimed that banned chemical weapons had been used in the city of Douma, near Damascus.

Can you call the story of the boy Hassan from Eastern Ghouta a propaganda? Here he is in a staged shot allegedly suffering from a chemical attack. And here he is - in the Netherlands, at the headquarters of the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, saying that there was no any attack.

How the "direction of war" works was well described by journalists when they interviewed the boy who was the protagonist of the "chemical tragedy” in Douma. It turned out that the little actors worked for food, and there was no chemistry at all.

And it was a kind of a rough fake hastily made. But it was the fake chemical attack that became a pretext for the Americans, British, and French to launch missile strikes against the sovereign state of Syria. The attacks were aimed specifically at government facilities, which, in the West's opinion, were used to produce chemical weapons.

The notorious organization, which called itself independent and even a human rights organization, was funded by the British government and structures close to the U.S. State Department. It also received grants from various EU countries. That is, from all those who were interested in the change of power in Syria. But instead of a humanitarian mission, the White Helmets deliberately distorted reality by producing staged content.

The rescuers are different, the scenery is different, too. But the wounded children are the same. This child, for example, appears not only in the photo, but also in two videos. One shows him being carried in the arms, while the other shows him being rescued from under the rubble, like a "mannequin challenge" hero. In this case, he has a terrible head injury, but for some reason he looks completely calm, even relaxed, until, as if on cue, he begins to scream in pain and call out for his father.

After that, the White Helmets demonstrated another "flagrant use of chemical weapons" at least twice more (although only in pictures). All these provocations are intended to besmirch the Syrian leadership and Russia, which helped to save the country.

Aleksei Avdonin, analyst with the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research (Belarus):

This is another grand provocation that left a sovereign state in ruins brought crisis, corruption and terrorism. This is already Iraq and Manning's famous file.

The Manning File is a secret document drafted by Washington and London to initiate military action in Iraq in 2003. The Bush administration had already decided to invade, but it had to "twist the arms of the UN" in order to get the approval of the Security Council. Five days later, Colin Powell appeared at the meeting, shaking the famous vial of white powder in his hands, alluding to pestilence spores and claiming that Baghdad had enough of these biological weapons to hit the entire "free world."

Later it turned out that Powell was holding a muzzle which became a symbol of the Iraqi tragedy. The U.S. launched a military operation without the authorization of the UN Security Council. The announced weapons were not found, but the "Islamic State" armed by the American military-industrial complex emerged in the sands of Iraq. Powell later called his speech "a grandiose intelligence failure." The White House frowned and continued to have a go on other countries.

During the invasion of Iraq by U.S. troops, more than 650,000 locals were killed. This is the data cited by J. Hopkins University. After Saddam Hussein was overthrown, Iraq was destabilized and the country plunged into a long and bloody civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. Post-war Baghdad has been called the worst city in the world in terms of living standards in various rankings. Although, before the war Iraq was considered one of the most prosperous countries in the Arab world

And this is the footage from Romania. 1989. These are also the tragic events, where everything is mysterious and not so unambiguous.

The revolution in Romania began in the small Hungarian town of Timisoara. The first victims appeared there in the protests after a while. The unrest spread to Bucharest. It is true that supporters of Ceausescu also gathered in the capital, but his speech was interrupted by a powerful explosion. A shooting and a bloody revolution began, the outcome of which is increasingly questioned 30 years later. Was it a coup and who shot at us? These are the two main questions in Romania.

The 1989 revolution was the result of a conspiracy, and the National Salvation Front resorted to sabotage and disinformation. The prosecution alleges that former Romanian President Ion Iliescu and his associates deliberately created an atmosphere of chaos and mass psychosis in the country, which led to the loss of human lives. According to various estimates, between 900 and 1,000 people died as a result of street clashes between protesters and security forces.

Other details emerged over time: Ceausescu did not order the shooting of protesters, though that is what he was tried for. This was done by General Stanculescu, who "came down to the side of people". By the way, he was one of the organizers of the trial and execution of Ceausescu. And another important fact: the revolution took place at a time when Romania favored by consideration from the West, was gradually becoming cold to its benefactors.

The former Romanian leader was credited with genocide, in which allegedly 60,000 people were killed. Years later it was proved that the number of victims was greatly exaggerated, and that there were armed and well-trained people among the "peaceful" demonstrators. It was they who provoked the bloodshed. German documentary filmmakers made a big investigative film about the falsification of facts.

Giorgio Agamben, Italian philosopher:

Who gave the orders to the "peaceful" protesters? There is a growing theory that foreign performers played on Romanian sentiments. And some political analysts call the events of 1989 the first color revolution. The son-in-law of former Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu stresses that in the couple of months before the unrest, more tourists entered the country than in the previous two years.

Mircea Oprean, son-in-law of Nicolae Ceausescu:

Experts say: "Romania's experience has shown that when the picture hits the emotions hard, the lie doesn't have to be hidden - people will believe the manipulator anyway." The joyous and sometimes bloody performances should connect the crowd with a sense of elation.

A year and a half ago, the Belarusians were also pumped with emotion. The Belarusian Internet has probably never seen so much negativity, provocations, and outright nonsense. Rape, torture, someone had almost all his teeth crushed. It was only later that the heroes of the extremist resources admitted that they had lied. At that time it was all done out of the blue, with a threatening message from the West, which traditionally did not spare serious accusations and big words against the Belarusian authorities.

As you can see, the whole issue today is generally about similar situations. Provocations are still an important tool in geopolitical games. They often lead to tragedy and loss of autonomy. Keep this in mind so you didn't get hooked on the next scenario. Take care!