This article appears in the October 21, 2022 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
The Renaissance of Western Democracy: Killing Lists and the Persecution of Free Thought
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Under this ironic headline, the website of the Serbian Center for Geostrategic Studies, headed by the journalist and author Prof. Dragana Trifković, published this report on the Schiller Institute’s Oct. 6 international press availability. It is republished here by EIR with permission. Subheads have been added.
Oct. 8—The Schiller Institute organized another conference on the subject of the blacklist, which was published by the Center for Countering Disinformation, founded in 2021 under the leadership of Vladimir Zelensky. This center is located within the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
Ukraine, which supposedly strives for democracy, has actualized the practice of persecuting dissidents and creating lists of “enemies,” which was the practice of Nazi Germany. Zelensky’s regime, at the behest of the U.S. and NATO, targets and persecutes free-thinking people around the world, calling them information terrorists, Russian agents, propagandists, and similar names. These are public figures who oppose imposed anti-Russian narratives and present their own views on the conflict between NATO and Russia.
The leadership of the independent Schiller Institute is also on Zelensky’s blacklist, as well as numerous American congressmen, senators, military and intelligence officers, independent analysts and journalists. Dragana Trifković, Director of the Center for Geostrategic Studies of Serbia, was blacklisted by Vladimir Zelensky under accusations of: spreading Russian propaganda due to statements about the existence of a network of American biological laboratories in Ukraine (which was also confirmed by Victoria Nuland in a hearing in Congress); claiming that the war in Ukraine began in 2014 after the coup d’état (which Zelensky also stated at the time); and rejecting claims about the crime in Bucha, which was directed according to Račak’s script. As a comment on being included in Zelensky’s blacklist (and since 2014 in the Myrotvorets database, which is actually a Ukrainian liquidation list), Dragana Trifković stated:
It is a great honor for me to share views with free-thinking people from all over the world who are being targeted by the puppet Ukrainian government. I would like to thank the Schiller Institute for its efforts to articulate common positions against the persecution and censorship that is being carried out.
Schiller Institute’s Important Role
The paradox of the times we live in is that we hear about democracy and human freedoms every day, [while] in many cases those who utter those words simultaneously carry out persecution and violence against freedom. Europe stands out the most in this regard and has practically returned to the dark ages of Nazism when blacklists of unfit people were made to be killed—but today under the guise of democracy.
The Center for Geostrategic Studies from Serbia, which I lead, is an independent non-governmental organization that gathers free-thinking people from various parts of the world who do not base their opinions on grants that someone pays them. In addition to mainstream politics, which is to a large extent completely alienated from the interests of the citizens they represent, non-governmental organizations that carry out propaganda and through which the so-called soft power is exercised, are also a big problem. But they also neither reflect the interests of society in Europe, nor represent the majority voice of Europe. These organizations try to influence the public and create trends that degrade the general interests.
Therefore, it is very important that we have a counterbalance to this, where the Schiller Institute also has an important role, as well as all the true freedom fighters who support this common platform. I would sincerely thank my colleagues from America for their support in this.
An obvious example of attempts to kill freedom of speech is the case of Julian Assange, who has been imprisoned for years because of the truths he has spoken. This case is followed by blacklists, lists for killing, on which we are also marked as targets. This history of violence is not from yesterday, and practically, goes back decades, changing its forms. In Europe, it culminated from the time of the disappearance of the balance after the end of the Cold War, which was reflected in the wars in the territory of the former Yugoslavia; and today it experiences its peak in Ukraine.
I will say that from the Serbian position it is not difficult to see what is happening, because we have the experience of hybrid wars in the former Yugoslavia, the experience of the NATO bombing in 1999, the experience of sanctions and black propaganda that was used against Serbia in the 1990s.
In addition, I personally visited Donbas several times and saw with my own eyes what is happening on the ground. Mostly when it comes to propaganda, it’s about journalists who don’t investigate on the ground but take news from Western sources, and it’s precisely those who try to discriminate against us.
Parallel of Serbia and Yugoslavia
The Center for Geostrategic Studies has sent a letter to the UN Human Rights Committee, the Council of Europe, the Red Cross, and other humanitarian organizations, urging that the war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia must stop and that Western weapons are killing civilians regardless of whether they speak Russian or Ukrainian language. We have not received a response from any institution.
I spoke at the UN Security Council recently about what happened in Yugoslavia, and compared it to what is happening in Ukraine today. There are many parallels. The problem is that it is very difficult to bring the truth to international institutions and that must change. Institutions should serve the people, and not the other way around for the people to serve the institutions.
We must continue our fight against the crime that so manipulatively wants to make criminals out of victims and democrats and saviors out of criminals. What the puppet leadership of Ukraine is carrying out, at the behest of NATO, is pure terrorism in its worst and most brutal form, where a message is sent to all who are ready to raise their voice against terror, violence and lies—that they will be killed.
If we don’t prevent this terrorism today, we won’t even be able to try tomorrow. Human civilization rests on human freedoms and on the dignity that they are trying to take away from us.
The Center for Geostrategic Studies is ready to continue this struggle, and we will be grateful to all organizations and individuals who share the same views if we join forces in this struggle.
