Russian-Chinese tailwind for settling scores with NGOs

The beginning of August reminded in many ways the end of December 2023. There are protests in the streets, warnings in the media about a new Maidan and “colour revolutions”, as well as Russia’s claims that the West is trying to “destabilise the situation” in Serbia following a “notorious scheme” (RTS). There is also gratitude to the Russian security structures for the warning that “mass riots” and “coup d’état” are being prepared in Serbia, which was sent by the Deputy Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vulin, to the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu. 

While last year’s protests were driven by electoral manipulations, the current wave of discontent, fuelled by the ‘revival’ of the lithium mining project, is also marked by a partially renewed government offensive against non-governmental organisations and activists. This summer, back-up came through a report published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, which stated that the American, non-profit organisation National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is involved in the internal affairs of many countries. Among other accusations, they allege involvement in the protests organised in Serbia after the two mass shootings in May 2023.

What is NED?

NED (National Endowment for Democracy) is a private, non-profit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. Every year, NED gives more than 2,000 grants to support projects of non-governmental organisations abroad that fight for democratic goals in more than 100 countries, according to the organisation’s website.

 

Domestic traitors, foreign mercenaries (encore)

 

Among the first, most influential portals that dealt with the Chinese report were the portals Mondo and Kurir, which reported on August 12th that “China calls NED the ‘velvet gloves’ of the US government”. Three days later, on August 15th, the Serbian Progressive Party MP Vladimir Đukanović drew attention to the Chinese report on NED on  the social network ‘X’ while  other media talked about a ‘huge scandal’ (Informer) and ‘shocking details’ (Alo!) that China disclosed.

Building on these ‘shocking details’, tabloids and government officials showcased otherwise publicly available information about which non-governmental organisations in Serbia receive funding from NED.

And indeed they did! In the period from August 15th to 26th, on the front pages of the seven most widely read daily newspapers and in at least 120 articles on domestic portals, the media directly and indirectly presented non-governmental organisations as foreign mercenaries that destabilise and overthrow the current government in the interests of the West. Analyses of ‘rivers of money’ for ‘anti-state” NGOs are followed by headlines in which the President of Serbia  and his close associates claim that foreigners have invested “hundreds of millions of euros in his demolition”.

To explain in words of one syllable who wearing the ‘velvet gloves’ has evil intentions when supporting the strengthening of democratic institutions in Serbia, NED is portrayed in the media as an “extended arm of the CIA” i.e. “another CIA” (Alo!) that used to ‘destroy’ Yugoslavia and now wants to ‘demolish’ Serbia (Novosti).

 

Ðukanović and Bakarec in the front row

 

Two days after the Chinese report attracted more media attention, during a visit to the “Days of cornbread and cheese” event, on Saturday, August 17th, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić also gave his comment.

“So, for the past three days, I have been studying how much money has entered our country to various political non-governmental organisations and everyone else. (…) The fact is that their intention is to overthrow me or, as they say, [they do] professional promotion of democracy and so on. You already know what it is about as soon as they use that phrase. (…) So it will be interesting in the coming days, it seems to me that the public will find out how it goes and how it works. So when I ask you – why will someone pay 105,000 euros, some National Endowment or some other party, ostensibly charitable, but in fact a foreign intelligence service in ‘velvet gloves’.  Why do they pay for protests against mini-hydroelectric plants 105,000 euros each? Why”, asked the President.

And unlike all other battles with alleged enemies of Serbia, when he went to the front line, this battle was carried on the backs of SNS MPs Vladimir Đukanović and Nebojša Bakarec. On the social network ‘X’ and in media appearances, they mentioned the Chinese report, and targeted specific organisations and individuals.

Claiming that the West, that is, America, gives huge money to NGOs and the media with the goal of regime change, MP Bakarec placed other American organisations such as USAID in the group of hostile organisations.

“One of the main winners of the American bingo lottery, where you are sure to be a winner, is CRTA. For example, the CRTA organisation is a cluster of different organisations. There’s CRTA, then there’s Truth-o-Metre, then again the Open Parliament and who knows what else they have under their belt. For example, CRTA received 10.8 million from 2018 to 2022, that is five years. It can be seen in the Business Registers Agency, in their statements… I don’t look further, for 2023, but they surely received 10 million. And then CRTA passes on [the money] to non-governmental organisations. So that’s a huge amount of money. Only USAID (which is here, you presented it well), it is seen here annually, gives 10 million dollars annually for destructive purposes to anti-Serbian non-governmental organisations and the media”, said Bakarec during his guest appearance on TV Informer.

Informer on “special war” against Serbia

Although the manipulations about foreign mercenaries who destroy the state order in the interests of enemy countries through the statements of the highest state officials reached the televisions with national coverage, the main channel was TV Informer.

Special shows hosted by the owner of Informer, Dragan J. Vučićević, were also broadcast on this television, and were presented as  “unmasking the financing flows of the special war against Serbia”. The representatives of the Serbian Radical Party, known for its hostile tone towards NGOs, as well as the famous conspiracy theorist Saša Borojević (in the media renamed as an analyst, in the Serbian Progressive Party as a member of the Belgrade City Assembly) contributed to this “unmasking”.

In addition to stressing that NED “finances and organises pro-American and pro-European non-governmental organisations, which staged protests, with the aim of violently overthrowing the Serbian Government and the entire state leadership”, MP Bakarec also said that USAID wants to “destabilise Serbia” and that it will have donated, by 2028 “10 million dollars to anti-Serbian NGOs  such as CRTA, KOMS, BeFem, Ćuruvija Foundation and SFF, through the ‘Trag Foundation’ which works in Belgrade”.

Beside specific targeting on the social network ‘X’  MP Đukanović also wrote that he hopes that the Government will “enact a law on NGOs that would make it impossible for those NGOs that receive donations from abroad” to operate and that he would “close them all” so that “none of them could work”.

[#analiza]

🔎Zakon o “stranim agentima” postaje tema ne samo u Gruziji, već i u Srbiji i Republici Srpskoj.

‼️Reč je o zakonu usmerenom protiv medija i NVO koje se finansiraju sredstvima iz inostranstva. pic.twitter.com/uzrPqaQIHm

— #dasenelazemo (@istinomer) May 13, 2024

Since August 15th, other government representatives have also been discussing non-governmental organisations in a negative context, focusing on their funding and ‘anti-state activities, namely Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, Minister of the Interior Ivica Dačić, Minister without portfolio  Đorđe Milićević, State Secretary of the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government Đorđe Dabić, Deputy Prime Minister of AP Vojvodina Sandra Božić and others.

 

‘Traditional friendship’ propaganda 

 

Narratives about destabilisation attempts coming from the West, “Maidanisation”, “colour revolutions” as Istinomer wrote, were cooked in the kitchen of Russian propaganda. The same recipe has been recognised for years in the attitude of the government and the mainstream media towards non-governmental organisations – “foreign “ or “Soros’s mercenaries”.

In the season we are currently watching, we can yet again hear the voices of those advocating the law on NGO, that is, the Russian law on “foreign agents”, with which Vladimir Putin started the crackdown on the civil sector and independent media back in 2012. From time to time, representatives of the authorities, their coalition partners and regular analysts of television with a national frequency share the idea that Serbia should enrich its legislative framework.

The Chinese report on NED opened up space for bonus manipulations – that this organisation is the “next CIA”, i.e. “an extended arm of the CIA”. Similar manipulations were also seen in the Russian media. When dealing with  “How wealthy is the American NED, a frequent financier of Serbian NGOs”, the portal Russia Today Balkan, in April this year wrote:

“Every year, NED approves more than 2,000 grants for non-governmental organisations in more than 100 countries of the world, according to the endowment on its website. Details of the projects they fund are nevertheless very scarce. On the website of the American government, apart from a general description in one sentence, almost nothing is stated, while on the website of NED, one can read no more than four or five sentences about the projects, also a general description. Quite in the manner of the CIA.”

Incidentally, as reported by Radio Free Europe Radio, in July 2015, Russia declared NED “undesirable”, because it considered that the activities of this organisation “threaten the constitutional system, defence capability and security of Russia”.

In the manner of the Kremlin, the sign of equality between the NED and the CIA was also placed in one of Informer’s “unmaskings” of the NGO sector, in which Dijana Hrkalović, former state secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, also participated. 

“CRTA, in 2020 and 2021, was financed (…) by Rockefeller, we know that, by the European Climate Foundation, behind which, there is Rockefeller, you can determine that with a simple Google search.  Rockefeller stands there again, who is again publicly in favour of lithium. All of them, all of these schemes are in favour of an independent Kosovo and Metohija, [for the idea that] the Serbs are genocidal and in favour of lithium, but the West should dig it, not Serbia. (…) That goes for everyone. (…) Well, what’s interesting now – 2023 to 2024, that’s another report here. Who appears as the CRTA’s financier? NED appears – NED equals CIA! (…) Who mentioned NED in the last days? China! Their Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that NED is exactly in 2023 and 2024, when we have here that it begins to pay CRTA under these schemes, that NED organised attempts at colour revolutions – in 2023 by the abuse of murdered children, in 2024 by lithium. What did I say a moment ago – who did Marinika go to for instructions regarding the murdered children? To CRTA!”, said Hrkalović on TV Informer.