The Agents of the Anti-Russian U.S. "War Party" in Europe
In the previous installment of my analysis of the leaked Montenegrin government files, I discussed the U.S. visit of Igor Lukšić, who was then the minister of foreign affairs of Montenegro, and his meetings with Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, Charles (Charlie) Kupchan, a presidential advisor and director for Europe in the National Security Council, and three U.S. senators: John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services committee, Ron Johnson, chairman of the subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, and Christopher Murphy, vice-chairman of the same subcommittee.[1] Based on the confidential report of their conversations with Lukšić compiled by the Embassy of Montenegro in Washington, DC, I was able to show that there exists a significant rift within NATO as to whether the further expansion of the alliance is a good idea.
It is also interesting to note that the most revealing statements on this matter were made by the president Obama's advisor Kupchan. In fact, it was he who recommended to Lukšić to meet and closely consult with Christoph Heusgen, the advisor to the German chancellor Angela Merkel for foreign and security policy, during his upcoming visit to Berlin. In this way, in my opinion, Kupchan signaled that Heusgen was one of the key U.S. agents of influence placed in the top echelon of the German government and therefore a trusted aide in sustaining and furthering the U.S. geopolitical agenda in Europe, especially its aggressive, militaristic stance toward Russia. And, indeed, as I will show, the leaked confidential report of Lukšić's visit to Berlin, written by the officials at the Embassy of Montenegro in Berlin, bears this out.
Lukšić visited Berlin on March 24, 2015, about ten days after his visit to the U.S. He first met with the German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Steinmeier became the foreign minister of Germany in December 2013 as the result of the grand coalition between the two largest German political parties, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). While CDU's Angela Merkel kept her job as the chancellor, Steinmeier, as the SPD leader, became the foreign minister. He was also a foreign minister in the earlier grand coalition arrangement from 2005 to 2009 and a vice-chancellor from 2007 to 2009.
What is very curious is that in the last few years, since the eruption of the Ukrainian crisis, Steinmeier has positioned himself in the public eye as the supporter of a less hardline approach toward Russia. He was for instance one of the key advocates of the Minsk Accords I-II, which he negotiated together with the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, and which probably offer the only realistic chance of putting an end to the conflict in Ukraine.[2] In addition, he has travelled to Russia frequently and met with the Russian president Vladimir Putin.[3] And yet, according to the leaked report, during the meeting with Lukšić, there were several instances where Steinmeier expressed a clear hostility toward Russia and the Russian influence in the Balkans.
First, Steinmeier stated that he was pleased with Montenegro in its ability to remain consistent in its foreign policy toward Russia (that is to say, in sustaining the anti-Russian policies, such as the economic sanctions and critical political rhetoric), even though it had found itself under the intense Russian pressure. He claimed that Russia was actively engaged in vastly expanding its influence in the Balkans and inquired whether Lukšić could describe the concrete cases of the Russian activities in Montenegro.
Lukšić appeared eager to comply and pointed out the presence of what he referred to as "the Russian propaganda" for which he accused certain opposition parties, non-governmental organizations, and the Serbian Orthodox Church. He stated that it was this Russian-financed "propaganda" which was responsible for low public support for NATO membership of Montenegro, as if the citizens of Montenegro had not been highly critical of NATO, even before the re-shaping of the Russian foreign and security policy under Putin. This attempt of Lukšić to ascribe the legitimate civic concerns to foreign manipulation was condemned by many Montenegrin public figures after the report was leaked to the press and led to a lawsuit against him by the Movement for Neutrality of Montenegro (MNMNE), which is still ongoing.[4]
Lukšić also tried to assuage Steinmeier's fears about the Russian economic influence in Montenegro by claiming that after the sanctions were put in place, the volume of economic activity had drastically fallen and that the Russians were now generally present only as tourists. Even the number of Russian tourists was declining, Lukšić added (most likely with enthusiasm in his voice), as if this was a good thing and not a serious problem for the Montenegrin budget. This is yet another example of how ideological commitment to the "Euro-Atlantic" [NATO] agenda by the corrupt Montenegrin ruling class, to which Lukšić belongs, goes directly against the vital economic interests of the Montenegrin citizens.
Lukšić's next meeting in Berlin was with Christoph Heusgen, Angela Merkel's advisor, for whom, as I pointed out earlier, there is a strong reason to believe that he is more willing to serve the U.S. hegemonic foreign policy goals in Europe than the national interest of the government he is supposed to be advising. The national interest of Germany is economic cooperation and political detente with Russia, and not antagonistic relations pushed for by the NATO political and military figures and the "war party" in Washington, DC, which includes the members of both the Republican and Democrat political establishments and is ideologically legitimized by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council. The German-Russian animosities have proven disastrous for Germany not once, but twice during the last century and any repetition of hostility would lead to the same tragic outcome.
Heusgen, however, seemed indifferent to the abyss into which the further confrontation with Russia may push Germany, and, in his conversation with Lukšić, he displayed a sharp anti-Russian tone. He demanded to know whether any Montenegrin top officials would attend the Victory Day parade in Moscow scheduled to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of the WWII in Europe. As I have written at the time, there was a concerted effort on the part of the U.S.-NATO circles to make sure that no European head of state or government accepted Putin's invitation in order to deepen the isolation of Russia from the international community.[5] This effort was largely successful and the only European states that sent their top officials to attend the parade were Serbia and Macedonia.
Lukšić replied to Heusgen that the final decision about the parade had not been made yet, but took Heusgen's hint so seriously that not long after his return to Montenegro, the president Filip Vujanović announced that he would in fact not attend the parade, even though he had already accepted the invitation. This sudden U-turn created a diplomatic scandal as the Russian ambassador to Montenegro Andrei Nesterenko publicly expressed his surprise, underscoring the pitiful lack of independence in the Montenegrin leadership's decision making.[6]
Heusgen also told Lukšić that Germany would strongly support a positive decision on the invitation to Montenegro to join NATO at the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in December 2015. In fact, he promised that Germany would lobby for the Montenegrin cause among those NATO member states which have publicly stated their reluctance to vote for further expansion, such as France. In addition, Heusgen demonstrated very sophisticated knowledge of the U.S. domestic political process (no doubt due to his close cooperation with Obama's advisor Kupchan) in that he claimed that it would make it easier for the U.S. if the invitation was issued at this meeting rather than at the 2016 NATO Summit in Warsaw, because NATO expansion with just one country (and as small as Montenegro) would be "a difficult sell" in the U.S. Congress. Needless to say, this shows a high degree of conspiratorial non-transparency with the intention to mislead the legitimate representatives of the American people by those political forces whose grand geopolitical design is the militaristic encirclement of Russia.
Moreover, Heusgen promised Lukšić the German logistical and financial assistance in confronting what, based on Lukšić's complaints, he perceived as the Russian influence in the Montenegrin political life. The primary focus of these activities was to be directed at raising the public support for NATO membership (which hovers around 30 percent) as well as supporting the various pro-NATO media outlets and organizations. In fact, it was precisely this type of foreign money infusion that has enabled the pro-NATO camp to stay afloat in Montenegro all these years, considering that NATO membership has no internal grounding or domestic legitimacy in the vast segments of the Montenegrin population.
In conclusion, one can say that this leaked Montenegrin government report has revealed the full extent to which both the German foreign minister Steinmeier and the top Merkel's advisor Heusgen, contrary to their public appearance and rhetoric, have been willing to act as the agents of the anti-Russian U.S. "war party" in Europe. This is a serious matter that needs to be taken into consideration not only by the German people whose representatives they purport to be, but also by the citizens of other EU nations, considering that similar agents of influence operate within their political elites as well. Without the timely discovery and political replacement of these individuals, another big-scale war in Europe may be around the corner.
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Dr. Filip Kovacevic, Newsbud-BFP Analyst & commentator, is a geopolitical author, university professor and the chairman of the Movement for Neutrality of Montenegro. He received his BA and PhD in political science in the US and was a visiting professor at St. Petersburg State University in Russia for two years. He is the author of seven books, dozens of academic articles & conference presentations and hundreds of newspaper columns and media commentaries. He has been invited to lecture throughout the EU, Balkans, ex-USSR and the US. He currently resides in San Francisco. He can be contacted at fk1917@yahoo.com
NOTES
[1] http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2016/09/14/the-leaked-montenegrin-government-files-part-i-a-rift-within-nato-confirmed/
[2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11408266/Minsk-agreement-on-Ukraine-crisis-text-in-full.html
[3] https://sputniknews.com/politics/20160323/1036804101/kremlin-steinmeier-putin-meeting.html
[4] http://mondo.me/a446827/Info/Crna-Gora/Pokret-za-neutralnost-tuzi-MVPEI-i-Luksica.htm l
[5] http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2015/04/17/bfp-exclusive-guess-whos-coming-to-the-moscow-parade/
[6] http://www.cdm.me/politika/nesterenko-vujanovic-prvo-potvrdio-dolazak-u-moskvu-pa-se-predomislio