Opinion: Color Revolution in USA

Anton SHVETS In the 21st century, Washington has perfectly mastered the art of supporting color revolutions, but today some American elites re-import a popular riot into the United States itself. The need to concentrate on its domestic affairs will inevitably affect US approaches towards Eastern European affairs, including in Moldova In recent decades, there have been many revolutionary changes in power in the countries of Eastern Europe (and, in fact, around the world – you can recall, for example, the so-called “Arab Spring”). Maidan and the revolution of dignity in Ukraine, the rose revolution in Georgia, the “twitter revolution” in Moldova - all the above popular unrest lifted to power governments focused on integration into the European Union and strategic partnership with the United States. Revolutions in the 21st century took place in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and civil demonstartions shook even such stable autocracies as Russia and Belarus, but without much success. In all cases, the United States acted as an active player in the processes of power transformation in these countries (especially in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia) through its official and informal agents of influence. The demonization of the State Department reached its peak in 2014, when the revolution of dignity in Ukraine led to the flight of Viktor Yanukovich and a radical revision of the country’s development vector. However, even neutral commentators recognize the US involvement in internal political processes in Eastern Europe, only subjective assessments of the intensity, quality and benefits of this influence differ. In fact, support for revolutionary movements has become one of the instruments of US foreign policy, which Washington invoked quite regularly, despite saving it as a last resort, sometimes with the support of US allies in the EU. Continuous technological improvements turned the color revolution as a phenomenon into a quite effective and at the same time very spectacular way of solving political tasks provoking keen sympathy among the progressive part of humanity. This technology allowed pulling out (with collateral losses, but nonetheless) from the orbit of Russia’s influence most of the countries located along its southwestern borders. At the same time, acting globally, the American “deep state” actually missed a leader with pronounced populist and autocratic features rising to power in its country, who is ready for an intense confrontation with the establishment to fulfill his own economic ideas and win re-election. Donald Trump is perceived by many players as a political leader, who in his public behavioral models is similar to the autocrats of Eastern European countries, in the struggle against which the American transnational elite has become so skilled. Despite all the limitations and the danger of using the color revolution technology “at home”, the Democratic Party and its powerful allies decided to stimulate popular riots directly in the United States. Protests are funded by lots of money from major multinational corporations, audiovisual and print media, numerous opinion leaders from sports to the film business, and the democratic and social democratic lobby of Western European countries. At the same time, a protest against racism and social injustice is gradually channeling into a campaign against Donald Trump’s re-election, who allegedly personifies the dominance of rich and white Americans. Despite the controversy of this thesis, Democrats succeed in mobilizing a protest electorate consisting of African and Latin Americans, which takes the incumbent US president away from the second term prospect. The tragic death of a black US citizen in Atlanta, again associated with an excessive use of force by the police, threatens to embitter the protesters and involve even less peaceful methods of struggle for their rights. Along with that, the ground for not recognizing the election results has been laid. It should be remembered that in 2016 Donald Trump won the presidency solely due to the historical features of the US presidential election institution, in which the votes of electors play a decisive role. For the second time in the 21st century, the Republican candidate, having received a minority of the population’s votes, came to power. Following George W. Bush, Donald Trump repeated the trick, having won 3 million fewer voters than his opponent Hillary Clinton. Discontent of the establishment willing to use radical technology to change power, controversial legitimacy of the 45th president of the United States, and heated not-so-easy-to-control protests do not promise simple solutions to American democracy. Up to the presidential elections in November this year and, most likely, for some time after them, the United States will completely plunge into internal problems and the search for a way out of a protracted clinch to enter the path of social unity and economic growth recovery. Obviously, to achieve that without significant changes and reciprocal concessions will be difficult. Among other things, the US self-absorption will imply a change in Washington’s approach to the processes taking place in Eastern Europe. Thus, the likelihood of a “big deal” with Moscow in terms of Moldova decreases with each protest in US cities. If Donald Trump in the situation of stability was ready to seriously consider the possibility to resolve the Transdniestrian conflict and form a power structure in the Republic of Moldova with partial respect for Russian interests, then Donald Trump in a confrontation with the Democrats, or the democrats in power who have been exploiting the Russian threat for many years, are unlikely to make a deal with the Kremlin. Let’s not forget about the dire state of power in Moldova itself: no functional parliamentary coalition, a “lame” government, a pre-default budget and the population exhausted by lockdown and diseases. In such a situation, Chisinau should think about not letting the next color revolution at home, especially that there are no other options as yet to cut the “Gordian knot” of Moldovan power vacuum.