We all know how sovereign international players fall under control of other states, thus losing their sovereignty. This results in foreign actors gaining unlimited power in the countries that can only be described as vassal states, with the latter losing any possibility to pursue their own national interests. Such takeover is equivalent to the direct transfer of all authority in a country to the aggressor. In late January, we’ve had a chance to witness such takeovers in two states, those are Venezuela and Latvia, where Washington showed the world how it is still capable of hijacking control of other states.
In the case of Venezuela, Washington made use of sanctions to bleed the economy of this state dry, thus destabilizing the social situation within it, even in spite of the fact that it has been known as one of the richest countries on earth due to its massive known oil reserves. At the same, time Caracas has been refusing to become yet another satellite state of the United States of America. Upon crippling Venezuela economically, Washington unleashed its social media wizards along with a number of pro-Western NGOs operating in this state under the pretext of promoting democracy and human rights. This created preconditions for yet another color revolution, with the US authorities declaring their official support to their “revolutionary” puppet actor at the closing stages of the operation.
Moreover, the successful implementation of Washington’s cunning designs is being discussed these days even by the mouthpiece of Western propaganda, known as The Wall Street Journal. In particular, it would state that the speaker of the Venezuelan parliament, Juan Guaido declared himself interim president after receiving a phone call from Mike Pence. The publication reveals that this call set the US plan to subject Venezuela to its control in motion, a plan that was being developed secretly in the weeks prior to the takeover. American officials, US allies and key political figures in Venezuela, including Guaido himself would all play a part in those designs.
Today it is no longer a secret that in mid-December 2018, Juan Guaido, before the start of mass opposition rallies in his home country visited Washington secretly, while making a tour across Colombia and Brazil. This fact has been revealed by the Associated Press that would place an emphasis on the fact that the main purpose behind this tour was to hold secret talks about the take down of Nicolas Maduro upon his presidential reelection last year.
According to the sitting US secretary of sate Mike Pompeo, the processes that are going to take place in Venezuela are going to be “coordinated” by the former senior US diplomat Eliot Abrams. As it’s been revealed by Jill Stein, a prominent figure in the US Green Party, Eliot Abrams is well known for his role in a series of coup d’etat attempts that were aimed at bringing Hugo Chavez down. Abrams was relying on the so-called “death squads” that would massacre thousands of people in cold blood in order to advance their agenda. It’s most curious that Eliot Abrams would lie to the US Congress to protect his masters in the Iran–Contra affair.
The facts presented above are incriminating enough for one to get a clear picture of the situation in Venezuela, as Washington’s malicious intent in the organization of yet another coup d’etat in this country is self-evident. It seems that Caracas is being punished once again for refusing to obey Washington’s dictates.
Yet another incident, that followed the well-established pattern of Washington implanting dubious figures in the highest echelons of power in foreign states, as it was with Mikheil Saakashvili in Georgia and Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine, occurred in Latvia. To be specific, Washington pushed for a 54-year-old former American citizen Arturs Kariņš to occupy the position of Latvia’s prime minister. Many observers have already pointed out that the incident occurred exactly two decades after yet another foreigner, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga occupying the highest post in Latvia.
As a matter of fact, all of the Baltic republics have a way of behaving as if they were distant overseas provinces of the United States, and Washington’s relations with all of the Baltic countries are reminiscent of the Medieval Suzerain/Vassal principle. Since the so-called “restoration of independence” of the Baltic states, Washington would dominate the political life of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
For example, in the first Latvia’s Foreign Policy Guidelines adopted by the Sejm in 1995, Latvia’s accession to the EU and NATO would place a particular emphasis on the “in-depth cooperation” with the United States that was called the principal objective of Riga’s foreign policy. Further on, the concept of the “in-depth cooperation with the US” would persist in all of the subsequent foreign policy papers issued by the Sejm.
As a matter of fact, Estonia’s bilateral relations with only two states would be officially outlined in the guidelines released by Tallinn. Unsurprisingly, those are the United States and Russia, with latter being described as a principal threat to Estonian national security. One would be surprised to learn that Estonia has no other foreign policy goals than the strengthening of its transatlantic ties with the United States.
In a bid to demonstrate that they are going to fulfill their “allied duties” to the US, Baltic states would support the bombing of Yugoslavia and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq even before they managed to join the North Atlantic Alliance. Those states would send their soldiers to die in the states occupied by the US, as there is no sacrifice that Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn would consider too big in their attempts to please Washington. In 2013, the three Baltic states unilaterally supported Washington’s decision to bomb Syria, even though it was made in direct violation of the UN Charter.
The servile manner in which the Baltic foreign ministers expressed their support for this criminal act speaks for itself. Back then Lithuania’s foreign minister Linas Linkevicius stated that Vilnius couldn’t stand aside as it appreciated the active stance on Syria taken by Washington too much. In turn, Latvia’s foreign minister Edgar Rinkevich was choking with excitement in a bid to demonstrate his servitude to Washington, declaring that the US-led airstrikes on Syria was the right course of action that didn’t require the approval of the United Nations. It matters little for Baltic states where, how and when the US is violating all of the existing international norms and the UN Charter, as their main goal is to demonstrate their obedience to the US in any possible form and fashion.
Although, how can one be surprised with their desire to violate the international law, when the Baltic states are routinely violating their own legislation in a bid to please America? What about the secret CIA prison in Lithuania?
Well, Washington is so pleased with this situation that it believes that it can control those states directly through its representatives. Former Estonia’s president Toomas Hendrik Ilves was an American citizen who arrived to Estonia for the first time at the age of 41 years. The above mentioned Vaira Vike-Freiberga, gave up her Canadian passport a day before getting proclaimed president of Latvia by the Sejm. Further still, Lithuania’s former president Valdas Adamkus renounced the American citizenship no more than five days before taking office!
It seems that Washington is craving to see the same sort of obedience demonstrated by Venezuela and its puppet – Juan Guaido. But Venezuela is nothing like the servile Baltic states that do not have their own voice and that remain contended with any sort of handouts that their masters in Washington would greet them with!
Martin Berger is a freelance journalist and geopolitical analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”