A coup is brewing in Macedonia that could have ties to plans to build a gas pipeline from Russia to western Europe, according to Ron Paul.
“That area could all of a sudden burst forth and be a very violent area again,” the three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Representative Paul said of Macedonia during his latest Liberty Report. The episode covered the politics tied to developing instability in the region.
Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams dove into background on the subject. It involved a Russian pipeline project called South Stream. South Stream designed to carry fuel from Russia to western Europe without having to go through battle-ridden Ukraine. The pipeline’s path went through Bulgaria, up through Romania, into Hungary and, from there, into the European Union.
Under pressure from the United States, Bulgaria backed out of the project and the E.U. stopped supporting it. Russian president Vladimir Putin declared South Stream dead in December.
Despite efforts from the Bulgarian government in February to try to reinstate South Stream, Putin instead signed a deal with Turkey to develop the pipeline along an alternate route. Now called Turkish Stream, the pipeline would avoid Bulgaria and go through Turkey, up through Greece and then north, through Macedonia, to Serbia, Hungary and then Austria. The pipeline is expected to be operational and sending gas to the E.U. by December 2016.
The U.S. is now putting pressure on Macedonia for its involvement with the revived project, McAdams said.
“It’s very interesting—the U.S started turning against the Macedonian government, which was elected just last year in elections that were recognized as legitimate elections,” McAdams noted. :The U.S. started running afoul of him, of the Prime Minister [Nikola] Gruevski, after . . . he refused to go along with the sanctions against Russia. The main U.S. policy followed by the E.U. as well is you’ve got to go for sanctions on Russia, you’ve got to isolate Russia. So that kind of painted a target on his back. And then agreeing to participate in the Turk-Stream was like the final nail in the coffin.”
McAdams then claimed that a large non-governmental organization called CIVIL is working in Macedonia trying to stir up people to overthrow the government. Visiting CIVIL’s website, it is clear that the organization is supported by the U.S. government, the Open Society Foundations (George Soros‘ organization) and the Swiss and German governments.
Moreover, U.S. and E.U. leaders this week went to Macedonia to negotiate with the government essentially to negotiate capitulation, McAdams said. “Even though they were freely elected—we say we support democracy—here comes the E.U. and the U.S. saying you’ve got to hold early elections next year and you’ve got to have a transitional government in the meantime,” he said. “Essentially it’s an overthrow without blood in the streets.”
“It’s another coup,” Paul said, “but it’s not the coups we think of, the violence, they throw them out or put pressure on people that they have to leave. And this is a case that looks clean, new and neater. But if no outside forces were involved there probably wouldn’t be an election right now.”
McAdams questioned what it would be like if another country came to the U.S. and tried to do what the U.S. is reportedly doing in Macedonia. He asked, “Can you imagine if the Chinese came over and told Obama you’ve got to cut your time as president two years short because you did some bad things like spying on the Americans?”
“They’re shooting themselves in the head,” McAdams continued. “What, do they think they’re going to get shale oil from the U.S.? They need this energy yet they somehow keep following the U.S. dictate to shut off these pipelines.”
Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.
In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY