By Vladimir Kornilov
Translated by Ollie Richardson and Angelina Siard
cross posted with http://www.stalkerzone.org/russia-nato-macedonia-sanctions/
source: https://ria.ru/analytics/20181002/1529760670.html
The European Union, the leadership of NATO, and the US State Department summed up the results of the referendum that took place in the small Balkan country of Macedonia.
Or more precisely, which didn’t take place.
As a reminder: most of the citizens of this country want to be in the EU. The West proposes EU membership only in a package that includes accession to NATO – and only if Macedonia is renamed at the request of Greece into Northern Macedonia.
Since the reputation and a self-assessment of NATO and European Union are now not in the best shape, both structures need confirmation of them being in demand. And both of them (plus, actually, the US) participated in the most active way in a propaganda campaign. Their high-ranking officials came to the republic, agitated for its renaming, and explained that there won’t be a second chance. Considerable resources, both material and intellectual, were thrown at the Macedonian referendum. The most outstanding political institutes like the Atlantic Council were working on a “yes” campaign. The official specialist of the US for interaction with Russia Kurt Volker on the eve of the referendum said: “Don’t Let Russia Get Its Way in Macedonia” and stated that Moscow “desperately wants” Macedonians “sinking back into the morass of Balkan ethnic strife”, and this, in his opinion, must surely happen in the event that the referendum fails. The former adviser to the Secretary of Defence and the Vice President of the United States Michael Carpenter spoke about approximately the same thing the day before. He said that if the opponents of renaming Macedonia win, “Russia sees this as a huge victory”, and disorder will start in the region.
The referendum question was formulated in such a way that most Macedonians voted “yes” (because the question didn’t contain the idea of renaming the country). It is precisely for this reason that initially opponents of accession to NATO built their campaign on a low voter turnout. For the recognition of the referendum as legitimate it was necessary to collect 50% + 1 vote. The opposition convinced people to “vote with their feet”. It seems that the rules of the game were clear and accepted by everyone.
But the total turnout didn’t reach even 37%. Although those who came to polling stations voted for renaming in their majority (91.5%).
It would seem that the conditions of a referendum weren’t satisfied. But, having recovered from the first shock, politicians and experts suddenly started shouting about the need to “respect the will of the people”.
High-ranking Macedonian officials started to declare that the electoral threshold doesn’t influence the legitimacy of a referendum at all. The Minister of Defence Radmila Šekerinska actually directly called to ignore the will of those who “voted with their feet”, having declared: “The current result means a clear definition of a European Macedonia. <…> The votes of those who voted decide”.
“During peaceful and democratic voting the vast majority of those who exercised their right to vote said ‘yes’ to the Prespa agreement on the name and the European way,” stated European officials. In their opinion, the result of the referendum showed “broad support” for the idea of the entry of Macedonia into the EU and NATO, and not vice versa. And the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also welcomed the result of voting and urged politicians to “use this historical opportunity”. The former Prime Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt recognised that the low voter turnout at the referendum upset disappointing. “The road ahead became more tricky, but it is important to press on”.
The US State Department, which welcomed the referendum’s results, having interpreted them unambiguously, went even further: “citizens expressed their support for NATO and European Union (EU) membership by accepting the Prespa Agreement between Macedonia and Greece”. Respectively, Macedonian politicians were urged to honour this “choice” that was allegedly made by the people. But there were no words about the failure of the referendum, as if people didn’t vote with their feet against the agreement.
Here a large number of examples of an absolutely contrary approach spring to mind. For example, in 2016 Dutch citizens in a referendum rejected the idea of a Ukraine-EU agreement, and the referendum took place (the voter turnout threshold of 30% was passed, and more than 60% of participants voted against). But political scientists started saying that less than a third of the population voted against the agreement, and, apparently, it is necessary to also respect the choice of those who didn’t come to polling stations. Thus, the result of the referendum was ignored.
But the reaction to a much more similar referendum that took place in 2016 in Hungary concerning the migrant quotas established by the European Union is especially indicative. There, like in Macedonia, the threshold for the referendum to be considered as legitimate was 50%. Supporters of the EU built their campaign on a low voter turnout. As a result, it didn’t achieve the necessary level, totalling 44% (i.e., it was more than now in Macedonia). And the percentage of those who voted against the European migrants quotas was 98.4% (i.e., even more than those who just voted in Macedonia for renaming the country).
If someone thinks that representatives of the West back then demanded to “respect the choice of the Hungarian people”, then they are very much mistaken.
On the contrary, all unanimously started to speak about the failed referendum. The official European Commission representative Margaritis Schinas back then stated: “If the referendum was recognised as having taken place, we would recognise its results. But we have to recognise that it failed”. Back then the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz publicly thanked the Hungarian people for their choice to stay at home and thus disrupt the referendum.
As you can see, nobody demanded from the Hungarian parliament to support the majority of the active voters and to vote against quotas, allegedly following the referendum’s results. And 98% of 44% of the Hungarians who voted is, after all, nothing when compared to 91% of the 36.9% of the Macedonians who voted. Because that referendum was “bad” and “incorrect”, and the current vote in the Balkans is “good”, even though it is illegitimate.
… What did we forget? Oh yes. Russia was accused several times of interfering, and The Guardian following the results of the referendum wrote: “Result of Macedonia’s referendum is another victory for Russia. Western leaders offered closer integration but they were outmanoeuvred by Moscow”.
We wait for sanctions.
Well perhaps the latest supersonic weapon invented by Russia is a kind of long distance remote control, where, I can imagine Vladimir in his slippers scanning the world before bedtime and thinking,”…perhaps we’ll wreak a little mischief…say, over in Macedonia…”
For the record, few Macedonians are for “EU/NATO Integration”.
Macedonians have endued occupation over the centuries and will continue to do so. Their own “political elite” will bear the eventual backlash.
What would say Alexander The Great to all these machinations ? Sure, for many this is an idiotic question but just think about it through the mirror of the past. After Tito died, it was pretty clear what will follow for Yugoslavia, the ghosts of the not so far away past have come back for revenge, throwing it into peaces, slice by slice. Poor people, they begun to realise what they lost only when it was too late (many are still not realizing or are happy with the outcome) We can talk of treason in the same way as of stupidity. When the first signs appeared, there were voices of concern, who listened to them ? The Evil doesn’t sleep and has plenty of time, knowing how to use it. What is to be done now ? Is there any help for a tiny country when her enemies are so powerful ? A new Alexander would be needed, but where ?
But the President seems determined to go ahead anyway? Must have been bought off….by whom?
my cousin was until recently pretty senior in Serbian government – he told me they get all the orders from the US Embassy – they seem to be a puppet government of Uncle Satan unfortunately – so I imagine its similar with Macedonia
I am afraid that the list would be rather long.
Aye; and much the same in Australia.
here in Norway to.
And every other country around the world
Except Russians and Chinese
Is there not any resistance or secretive sabotage among the patriots? By sabotage I mean those who throw a little wrench in the system if they can or don’t obey the U.S. Embassy orders completely, even if it looks like it on the surface.
Why aren’t the Serbian people protesting their puppet government?
Russian are honest more than western press
Putin must be knackered. So much meddling to do, so little time to do it. Meddling for Trump, Brexit, Catalonia, Italian/ French/ German/ Dutch/ Bulgarian/ Moldova/ Macedonia elections, he must be bankrupting Russia by the trolling bill alone.
Ha ha.
Good one.
And there silly Shoigu went and said that Russia only had time to meddle in one country at a time!
Katherine
America which spent $5 billion over the decades “meddling” in Ukraine, and which gives hundreds of millions of dollars each year to Syria Islamcist “rebels” plus the direct costs of thousands of troops invading Syria plus the tens of thousands of dollars that each hour of fighter jet airtime costs plus who knows how much out of the unseeable and unknowable grey and black budgets of the CIA……. could learn a lot about efficient use of the taxpayer’s ruble from Putin who does all of his meddling with a few FB and Twitter ads.
Putin’s meddling budget couldn’t pay one day’s lunch bill for America’s Meddlers.
Hang on; I think it could afford a $5 burger from Macdonalds!
$5? When is the last time you ate in MacDonalds?
Not too lately as I cannot afford it, the meals are overpriced. However you can still buy a ‘hamburger’ or whatever for $5 in Geelong.
What I really like is the manner in which both Russia and China can spend far less than their ‘opposition’ for similar products. My only hope is that China is joking about going to the moon as the Van Allen belts still have to be overcome. I was thinking that perhaps a superconductor around a spacecraft could produce a similar outcome to the Van Allen belts, but again the electricity produced would still be detrimental to lifeforms within such a craft.
Off topic. But concerning Skirpal, who sold important Russian state secrets in 1993 for $3,000, let’s remember something. We’re he an American, Englishman, or Israeli who had done the same those countries in the 1990s, then he would have been killed many years ago. The CIA, Mossad, or Mi16 would have had no mercy for him.
Good work, Alexander Vladimirovich Putin. Continue your efforts on behalf of Russia’s national revival.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
About the Dutch referendum: No more! Minister of internal affairs Ollongren, from D66, a party which always had referenda in their election program, has effectively cancelled the law which made referenda part of the Dutch election system due to its ´undemocratic character´.
The Duran
EU and NATO openly meddle in North Macedonia referendum –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvnZ3rMllfA&t=196s
– but without success. We will soon hear from the MSM that Russia interfered in the referendum.
Pretex for new sanctions.
China is also getting good at meddling with God’s Chosen Suckers.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-is-giving-china-the-keys-to-its-largest-port-and-the-u-s-navy-may-abandon-israel-1.6470527
What Russian influence you are writing about? About the visits of Merkel,Kurtz,Matis,Stoltenberg,Theresa May in less than a month? About the people who have dignity and pride to not be wiped out from the list of the old nations,because of the Greek wish only? Nobody has right to force any Nation to change the own name. The name of the previous and the next generations. Other country,like Greece to write the history
The Macedonian regime should have just hired the Americans to manufacture one of their trademarked corporate sham “elections” to legitimize this unpopular policy.
America is not only the best “democracy” that money can buy, but it will aggressively export its warped version of democratic elections to other countries.
So its not just america where public opinion is disregarded.