How George Soros’ attempts to further his anarchist ideas spawned political instability in post-Soviet states

George Soros’s view on ‘Open Society’ can be considered an anarchic one, so also his view on democracy promotion is quite erroneous in nature. Though there are normative norms associated with democracy which are universal in nature, but imposing democracy, particularly the one promoted by the International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs)  from Western countries with a vested interest in mind, does more harm to the political system of different countries.   The ‘Colour Revolutions’ in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Ukraine are the best examples in this regard. The best way to promote democracy is to contextualise universal ideas in a particular socio-political and cultural context. This way, democratisation can be much smoother, and the process will have continuity.   In this regard, it can be underlined that the rich civilizational glory of India provides continuity and resilience to the success of democratic processes.     Soros, an American stockbroker considered as the key player responsible for many economic crises and orchestrating political anarchy in the form of the Colour Revolution in the post-Soviet Space, is once again making headlines for his irresponsible comments on Indian democracy.   India’s  External Affairs  Minister S Jaishankar responded to Soros’s view on Indian democracy by calling him “ old, rich, opinionated and dangerous”.  Jaishankar stated, “People like him think an election is good if the person they want to see, wins and if the election throws up a different outcome, then they will say it is a flawed democracy and the beauty is that all this is done under the pretence of advocacy of open society."    India’s External Affairs Minister Jaishankar did the right thing by hitting hard at Soros for his irresponsible comments.   Though Soros has been making headlines in India recently, his mischievous role was widely known mainly in the Eastern European countries. Soros has also been accused of causing financial meltdowns by manipulating stock markets. The most famous is the collapse of the British Bank in 1992 and the subsequent financial crisis in Malaysia and SouthEast Asia. Roots of Soros’s anarchist ideas Born to a  Hungarian Jew family but trained under the guidance of  Karl Popper, a well-known political scientist of  Great Britain, and a Fabian socialist. Popper wrote a book named- “Open Society and Its Enemy”, which is considered critical to Thomas Hobbes’s book -     The Leviathan and Plato’s concept of philosopher king.   Soros, in one of his writing, “Fallibility, Reflexivity, and the Human Uncertainty Principle”, Journal of Economic Methodology, published in 2014, explicitly mentions, “I could choose my tutor, and I chose Popper whose book The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) had made a profound impression on me”. Along with the influence of Popper, his bitter childhood memory has also shaped Soros’s political thinking. The same was revealed in an interview with Soros. As quoted in the article, “George Soros: Hit-Man for The British Oligarchy,” published in the special issue of Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) in July 2008, “ When the Germans came in, he [ Soros’s Father] said, ‘This is a lawless occupation. The normal rules don’t apply. You have to forget how you behave in a normal society’”.  This might have triggered some of his anarchical views. His childhood memories and supervisor Popper’s influence significantly shaped his thinking process. The foundation he established in 1979 was known as the ‘Open Society Fund’; later, the ‘Open Society Institute’ also came up, as the above study suggests.   Along with these two, Soros also established several other initiatives to foster his agendas. His nihilist approach was reflected in the book published in 2000 titled “Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism”.   In the book, Soros mentions that - “It is in the interest of open societies to help foster the development of open societies throughout the world and to establish the international institutions appropriate to an open global society” (p.116).  His inkling for a global capitalist order is evident as he underlines, in the same book, where he emphasises that “states often pose obstacles to the expansion of capitalism” (p.172).   From the above statements, it can be underlined here that Soros is a staunch opponent of a strong nation and nationalism. Soros and political instability in post-Soviet Space   Some of the ideas Soros highlighted were reflected in the Colour Revolutions in the post-Soviet space in 2004 and 2005. Countries worst affected by the Colour Revolutions are Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and  Georgia, considered to be the strategic arc of post-Soviet Eurasia because of their strategic location.     One may recall here that Russia also exploited its vulnerability in the post-1991 phase. Soros Foundation has also profoundly impacted the socio-political and economic system spectrum of Russia. For instance, during  the 1998 financial meltdown, as reported in the New York Times 1998,  titled “Soros’s Quantum Fund Losses in Russia Put at $2 Billion”. Soros advised the Boris Yeltsin government not to heed the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which advocated stricter monetary control to revamp the Russian economy. It has also been observed that taking advantage of a much weaker Russia under the leadership of Yeltsin, the Soros Foundation crept into various sectors, which provided the base for the flourishing of his civil society group.     The primary objective of Soros’s Foundation in Russia was to weaken the  Yeltsin government. As Soros’s himself admitted, “As a general rule, the worse the government, the better the foundation because it enjoys the commitment and support of civil society”, as quoted in an article titled “George Soros: The Forced-Open Society”,  written by  Leandra Bernstein and published in    Executive Intelligence Review (EIR)  July 2008.     The same report has also further mentioned how Soros spent around “800 million dollars” to carry out the so-called project of “democratic promotion” as well as “ Open Society” in different parts of the post-Soviet space. Similarly, Soros also opened its branches in Lithuania and Belarus. Even in the East European countries, the Soros Foundation also tried to carry out fundamental transformation by taking advantage of political-economic transition. The Foundation has even opened up a Central European University, presently located in Vienna, as it was closed down in Budapest. This University is currently imparting education largely inspired by Soros’s ideology of an open society.     However, Soros’s march into the post- Soviet Space was halted when, in 1997, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, banned this foundation from carrying out political activities and at the same time imposed a fine of “ three million dollars” on this foundation, as reported in the New York Times.   Similarly,  in Georgia, former President Eduard Shevardnadze, who toed a Western agenda in  Georgia in the initial years of 1991 but later fell in line with the West, was ousted from power through a ‘Colour Revolution’. In this regard,  it is pertinent to highlight that despite toing to a Western game plan, Shevardnadze apprehended Soros’s design in unsettling him from power.   This has been reported in an article by Mark MacKinnon titled “Georgia revolt carried the mark of Soros” that the Soros Foundation sent an  Open Society activist Giga Bokeria to train in the art of mobilisation of masses to Serbia, where the Otpor Movement was at its height.  After obtaining training, Bokeria imparted the training to the Georgian people, who later carried out the same form of mobilisation against Shevardnadze.   In this regard, the Soros Foundation also provided financial and logistic support to the Velvet Movement. MacKinnon highlights further in his article that “ Kmara received a $500,000 (U.S.) start-up grant in… which may have been used during the three weeks of street protests when it bused demonstrators in from the countryside and set up loudspeakers and a giant television screen amid the crowds surrounding the parliament building”. The Kmara is a student movement that played a pivotal role in ousting Shevardnadze, before his ouster from power, he  accused  Soros Foundation by stating that “ Georgia’s internal affairs are not the Soros’ business.”  After the removal of the power of Shevardnadze,  Soros reportedly said,  “I’m delighted by what happened in Georgia, and I take great pride in having contributed to it.” Even Ukraine, which has been at the flashpoint of global attention in recent months due to its war with Russia, has underwent a similar  kind of Colour Revolution. Yuri Sakharov, a Russian Political Scientist, in an article titled “Color Revolutions: Uniformity in Diversity”  published in Journal   International Affairs, 2008, stated that “The Soros Foundation played the most active role in preparing and staging ‘democratic revolutions’  in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.”   Shakarov further states that “U.S. press reports give a rough idea of the financing of the ‘revolutions’, $65 million was spent on preparations for  ‘the Orange Revolution’ in Ukraine and another $18 million during it.”     Scholarly studies also suggest that, like in Georgia, the Open Society, the wing of the Soros Foundation, trained youths to carry out mobilisation and protest movements. As has been observed by the  British Newspaper   The Guardian, in an article published in 2004,  titled “US campaign behind the turmoil in Kyiv”,  stated -  “ The Democratic party’s National Democratic Institute, the Republican party’s International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros’s open society institute."     The same article further mentions that the Student organisation Pora played a crucial role in Organizing and ousting the Leonid Kuchma regime from power in 2005. The activities of the Soros Foundation continue to function in the post-Soviet space. The same can be evident during the 2014  Maidan Crisis in  Ukraine. Soros, in an article titled “Keep the Spirit of the Maidan Alive”, published on the website of the Open Society Foundation in 2014, stated, “For Ukrainians to realise that future, the spirit of the Maidan must be preserved. They will need international support." Even in Central Asia, Soros spent millions of dollars strengthening his footprint in the strategically important region . This foundation, as reported, worked on socio-economic sectors to wean away masses in its favour.  After the Velvet Revolution in Georgia, there was much apprehension in Kyrgyzstan that the Askar Akaev regime would also meet the same fate as Shevardnadze. This also proved true as  Akaev was overthrown through an orchestrated Colour Revolution known as Tulip Revolution that took place in 2005. In the context of the Colour Revolution, it has been observed that the Soros Foundation provided the necessary support for orchestrating Colour Revolutions in Kyrgyzstan.  As Soros stated, “I provided for Georgian public servants to get $1,200 a month…And now, I am ready to support the creation of a fund like this” in Kyrgyzstan. Along with the Soros Foundation, the State Department of the United States, as alleged, also played a catalytic role in the spread of the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005.  As observed, “ The Americans poured some $12 million into Kyrgyzstan through scholarships and donations - and that was last year alone. Washington’s State Department even funded TV station equipment in the rebellious southern province town of Osh”. It has been alleged that, like the Otpor movement of Serbia and Kamra of Georgia,  motivated  student  groups like Kel-kel played a prominent role in mobilising the youth in Kyrgyzstan for ousting the Askar Akaev government during the Tulip Revolution.   In Russia, the Soros  Foundation faced considerable challenges after the assumption of power by President Vladimir Putin. The Russian government, understanding the Foundation’s wicked intention, put many restrictions on its functioning in Russia, including the takeover of the office of the Open Society located in Moscow way back in 2003.  In 2015,   the Russian government banned this foundation by stating that “ It was found that the activity of the Open Society Foundations and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation represents a threat to the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation and the security of the state”.       At the same time, Soros is considered to be the harshest critic of  President Putin and publicly criticised Russia on several occasions. For instance, Soros, in an article titled “Wake Up, Europe”, published in   New York Times, wrote “ Now Russia is presenting an alternative that poses a fundamental challenge to the values and principles on which the European Union was originally founded. It is based on the use of force that manifests itself in repression at home and aggression abroad, as opposed to the rule of law."     This criticism of Soros aimed at weakening the political system of Russia. Thus, one can infer from Soros’s activities and his foundation that Open Society attempted to  thwart the political development of post-Soviet countries. This thwarted the political development of these countries. Similarly, Soros by toppling the democratically elected government  through orchestrating Colour Revolutions stymied the evolution of the stable political process in the post-Soviet space.       In this regard, the present crisis which the post-Soviet space is confronting greatly can be attributed to the negative role of Soros. Soros disrupted the political process of Kyrgyzstan,   Georgia and Ukraine have a bearing on the geopolitical processes also.     For instance, the present war between Russia and Ukraine can be rooted in the political crisis which contributed to regime change and the West’s attempt for a friendly regime which can pursue a consistent anti-Russia policy. Similarly, Kyrgyzstan plunged into a massive political crisis after the Soros-inspired Colour Revolutions in 2005.  The problem in Georgia is not much better. The emergence of weak institutional governance structure and the growing role of unregulated foreign-funded Civil Society organisations like the one of Georgia Foundation funded by Soros is crippling the socio-political process of Georgia, as studies suggest. Soros is also a major proponent of the intervention of external actors for “ democracy Promotion”. As he highlights, “People who have been living in a totalitarian system all their lives need outside assistance to turn their aspirations into reality.” Using this maxim only,  Soros interfered in the political processes of the East European countries and also  the post-Soviet space. Soros in United States In this regard, it may be underlined that even in the United States, Soros was also subjected to harsh public criticism for manipulating elections and influencing the local judiciary. Glen Back, an American journalist, has alleged that   Soros has “donated more than $14 million to a group here in America called the American Constitution Society…. With an area focus on constitutional interpretation and change.” Even in 2016, Soros was accused of influencing the local judiciary through funding. A news report published by Scott Bland substantiates this allegation. Bland writes, “The billionaire financier has channeled more than $3 million into seven local district-attorney campaigns in six states over the past year — a sum that exceeds the total spent on the 2016 presidential campaign by all but a handful of rival super-donors."   The allegations came to the fore in recent months as  Former President of the United States, Donald Trump, accused Soros of his indictment by a lower court in April 2023. Trump stated that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, was a “radical left, George Soros-backed prosecutor” . As a recent New York Post article titled  “ Son of George Soros scoring easy White House access, records show”, dated  April 8 2023, highlights, “They point to the elder Soros donating $1 million in 2021 to the left-wing Color of Change political action committee that backed Alvin Bragg." Thus, we see how Soros orchestrates anarchy and manipulates political processes to ensure the furtherance of his own views and interests. To be continued… This is part-1 of the George Soros’ agenda series. The author teaches at the School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi. Views expressed are personal. Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.