Belarus at UN: Nazi-esque US/EU waging 'economic terrorism' and hybrid war for 'color revolution'
At the United Nations, Belarus compared Western imperialists to the Nazis it fought in WWII, condemning US/EU sanctions as "economic terrorism," denouncing the "large-scale hybrid war" against it
Belarus spoke out forcefully against US and European imperialism, unilateralism, and meddling in its internal affairs, in the country’s address at the United Nations General Assembly on September 27.
What Belarusian government officials say is almost never reported on in Western corporate media, so this is a rare opportunity to get the perspective of a country that is uniformly demonized and maligned in the press.
Foreign Affairs Minister Vladimir Makei compared Western imperialists today to the Nazis that his nation nobly fought in World War II, noting one-third of Belarus’ population was killed by the fascist invaders.
Makei condemned US and EU sanctions on Belarus, Cuba, and other countries as an illegal form of “economic terrorism.”
“Belarus is subjected to a large-scale hybrid war from all sides,” he said, noting that Washington and Brussel attempted a “color revolution” and regime-change “blitzkrieg” — but they ultimately failed to overthrow its government.
Stressing that Western interventionism has only “created chaos and instability,” Makei stated that the US and EU have distorted the concept of “human rights” and turned it into a “weapon,” while using fake news and communications technologies as tools of hybrid warfare to destabilize and topple independent governments.
The top Belarusian diplomat also criticized the increasing influence of corporations and Western state-funded non-government organizations (NGOs) at the UN, warning that this is undermining multilateralism and state sovereignty.
I have highlighted some of the main points of Makei’s speech below, because they will not be reported on in the Western media, and it is important to hear what targets of Western imperialism actually say, in their own words.
Belarus is target of Western “geopolitical war” and “color revolution”
“Belarus has also been drawn against its will into the vortex of this geopolitical war,” Makei lamented.
“Our country for more than a year has been a target for belligerent pressure from the West, and only because Belarus did not manage to act out the highly polished script of yet another color revolution.”
“Today, Belarus is subjected to a large-scale hybrid war from all sides. We are surprised by the creativity of the authors, who are using beautiful but hypocritical adjectives to justify their destructive actions.”
But the Western “blitzkrieg to change the government in Belarus did not work,” Makei continued. “Moreover, the West quickly lost the support of the people, with their protests organized from outside. It was a miscalculation. Belarus continues to develop successfully and carve its own path.”
US/EU sanctions are illegal “economic terrorism”
The Belarusian foreign minister used his platform at the UN to condemn the US-EU strategy of imposing unilateral sanctions to try to destroy foreign nations and force them to bend to its will.
The “barbarous policy of sanctions” is a form of “economic terrorism,” Makei said.
“Unilateral measures violate clearly international law and carry out serious damage to the whole system of international relations,” and “it is clear that the main victims of unilateral sanctions are normal people.”
“We express our solidarity with other countries who are suffering from sanctions, particularly brotherly people of Cuba, who for so many years have been suffering from unjust economic blockade,” Makei emphasized.
New weapons of hybrid war: fake news, communication technologies
“Today, the world is being governed by economic egotism, political ambition, blackmail, imperial habits, crisis, conflicts, and, orchestrated chaos,” Belarus’ top diplomat lamented.
Makei condemned Western “hybrid wars and malicious and criminal use of modern information technologies,” as well as “blatant interference by self-styled oracles in internal affairs of other sovereign states.”
Fake news has become a new regime-change weapon, he said: “Today, with the help of electronic gadgets, you can undermine the domestic peace and harmony in any state, and also remove its leadership from power.”
The Belarusian foreign minister warned that Western interventionism has only “created chaos and instability.” Makei cited the 20-year US-NATO war on Afghanistan as “a recent example of this senseless policy from some so-called champions or citadels of democracy. However the consequence of this policy today is on the shoulders of the whole international community.”
Western imperialist countries have refined “human rights,” and it “is not only a dangerous toy in the hands of blundering and short-sighted politicians, but a real weapon against undesirable and disobedient countries,” he continued.
This weapon is used by “so-called developed countries to monopolize the copyright on ‘democracy,’ and arbitrarily define the level of democracy in other countries, and depending on that, stick offensive labels on sovereign states.”
Makei said this cynical tactic “clearly reminds us of methods of the Nazis, who also divided the world into those who should rule and those who should be a slave.”
Warning of European attempts to rehabilitate Nazis
The foreign minister also commemorated the anniversary of World War II, or what Belarus calls the Great Patriotic War.
“The atrocities of the Nazis led to cost millions of lives around the world during the military ordeal. A third of Belarus’ population died in the fight against the fascist invaders and their allies, who waged genocide against our people,” Makei said.
“It is deeply regrettable that today we can see dangerous trends of skewing the moral and legal assessments of the outcomes of the Second World War, equating the rights of the victims and the slaughterers, of the liberators and the aggressors, and casting doubt on the outcomes of the Nuremberg Trials.”
These comments were a clear reference to attempts by NATO/EU-backed far-right governments in Eastern and Central Europe — such as Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland — to rewrite the history of World War II to portray the Soviet Union as the villain, whitewashing or even praising fascists and Nazi collaborators in the process.
Holocaust experts describe this dangerous trend as the “double genocide” conspiracy theory, and warn it is becoming increasingly common, with help from NATO and the EU.
Condemning EU hypocrisy on immigrants and refugees
Belarus likewise criticized the extreme hypocrisy of the European Union, which has accused the country of violating the rights of immigrants and refugees. Foreign Minister Makei noted that many of these people are fleeing wars fueled by the EU, and Brussels’ own “response is a iron curtain made of barbed wire.”
“The West has fabricated a conflict with refugees on the western border of Belarus, forgetting about their own international obligations, both as regards our country and as regards the countries of origin of these refugees,” Makei said.
“Today millions of refugees are trying to reach a full Europe from all over the world, to escape from the hunger and disaster created by this same Europe and West as a whole.”
“But as it has turned out, no one wants them in Europe, and it has even gone as far as in Poland, a neighbor of Belarus, as well as in Baltic states, refugees are not only deliberately beaten up, but are being killed, and their corpses are secretly at night being dragged across the border into Belarusian territory. And these are not isolated cases; it has become a norm of conduct of our western neighbors.”
“Is this not the height of cynicism and heresy from those who champion human rights, who boast of the highest level of civilization and who try to teach others how to live?”
Increasing corporate and NGO control over UN
Belarus’ top diplomat also used his speech at the General Assembly to criticize the United Nations itself.
“The UN is commercializing its agenda, and becoming more and more a mimic of Western policy,” Makei warned. “The UN is thinking more and more like the West, trampling on important principles of solidarity and multilateralism.”
Makei noted that Western governments fund so-called non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and use them to weaken state sovereignty.
We see “an attempt to give NGOs, who are often created and supported with the support of some interested states, to give these NGOs a status that is identical to sovereign member states of the UN. This is categorically unacceptable,” the Belarusian foreign minister said.
“I would like to also recall the existence of a key principle of the UN: one state, one vote. We are also against the degradation of sovereignty of UN member states, and creating puppets dressed up as NGOs who would be able to drown out the views of independent states.”