Foreign agents are seeking to destabilize the Balkan nation in the wake of two mass shootings, a top Russian senator claims
Western nations appear to be laying the groundwork for a ‘color revolution’ in Serbia, according to Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the upper chamber of Russia’s parliament. She claimed that public anger is being whipped up following two mass shootings in the country.
“What we have today is a classic example of network-centric warfare, when net structures under Western control use some hot-button issue to destabilize the situation, hoping it would serve as a trigger. Then they provoke mass demonstrations and deploy prepared local opposition,” she said in an interview with Sputnik Serbia on Monday.
Matvienko said the same approach was used during the Arab Spring uprisings, as well as in Iran. In Serbia’s case, she added, the US and its allies are seeking to stir public anger over the two mass shootings, which took place in Belgrade and Mladenovac.
On May 3, a school shooting in Belgrade claimed ten lives, after one of the students used his father’s firearms to attack other children and staff. The following day, a 20-year-old man went on a shooting spree, killing nine at several locations.
The Russian lawmaker described the use of those tragedies for political machination as “extreme, monstrous cynicism,” which shows “how far the West can go in its desire to quash Serbia and punish it for having an independent policy.” Any normal person should be disgusted by this, Matvienko added.
The Russian senator called for a thorough investigation into the Mladenovac case for possible manipulation of the “psycho killer” on social media and the dark web. Western special services are “actively using methods of neuro-linguistic programming,” she claimed, referring to a method that purports to subtly influence people’s behavior.
Matvienko asserted that nations can withstand foreign-influenced coups, citing Syria and Belarus as examples of successful defense against Western attempts to topple a government. Serbia will also manage to resist, she stated, arguing that the recent memory of NATO bombings in 1999 gives Serbs resistance to “deception.”
