By Marin Guentchev, MD, PhD, and Hristo Guentchev
Stalin had a dream. It was a dream about one global Communist state. However, before making his dream a reality, there was one obstacle he had to overcome—Capitalism. The only way to do that was by gaining control of Russia in order to use its extensive resources to forward his ideas. Yet again today we witness individuals with global ambitions, and their approach is very similar to Stalin’s.
Almost 30 years ago, everybody thought that with the fall of Communism, Stalin’s ideas were finally proven wrong. For former communist countries like Bulgaria, a long and painful transition to a free society was about to begin. The United States supported that transition by investing in a civil society through USAID and the America for Bulgaria Foundation (A4B). In the beginning, the newly established civil sector contributed to the promotion of democracy and a free market economy.
However, things gradually changed. From being vehicles of a free society, A4B-supported NGOs became propagators of a specific ideological narrative. Instead of supporting the erection of institutions that would allow ordinary Bulgarians to participate in government, they began pressing for the implementation of a left-liberal agenda against the will of the majority of the people—a scenario that was repeated in most Eastern European countries.
One of the many examples is the attitude of the news outlets Dnevnik/Capital and Mediapool, which together receive approximately 94% of A4B’s budget dedicated to media. Ever since the late 1990s, Dnevnik and Capital took a stance for gun control, open borders, abortion, gender mainstreaming, minority empowerment, and political correctness. When citing US media they took a one-sided approach, favoring the opinions of the left. They would reprint articles from the liberal New York Times and Washington Post two to three times more often than articles from the conservative Wall Street Journal. With regard to TV broadcasts, CNN was referred to 10 times more often in their publications than Fox News.
Another hint that A4B was favoring the left-wing agenda was the fact that the majority of funds went to organizations associated with George Soros’s Open Society. Since 2009, 92% of the 12 million USD distributed through the A4B Civil Society and Democratic Institutions program has been channeled into organizations that have also received funding from or partnered with Open Society.
The effects of this favoritism are as follows: (1) A4B-supported liberal-left has gained a monopoly over civil society in Bulgaria and in most other Eastern European countries; (2) since liberal-left policies are very unpopular here, it has led to a growing hostility toward the United States and has established Russia as a conservative leader in the region; (3) Bulgarian and other Eastern European immigrants in the United States have been biased in supporting the Democratic Party rather the Republican Party; and (4) A4B-sponsored media are now hostile toward the current White House administration.
In other words, in Eastern Europe, the United States Government finances mainly liberal-left organizations, which are more loyal to their political agenda than to the public they should serve.
As with Russia in the early 20th century, yet again liberal-left Marxists have found a state rich and powerful enough to fund their political activities and spread their ideas. For the sake of the American people and all Eastern Europeans, this has to stop now, and only the United States Government can stop it.
About the authors
Marin Guentchev received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, Austria. Currently he is founder and owner of Trinity Medical Center in Sofia, Bulgaria and is Junior Professor (Privatdozent) for neurosurgery at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Hristo Guentchev received his architectural degree from the Technical University in Vienna, Austria. He is founder and owner of Prototyp Ltd an international facade engineering company. Prototyp’s portfolio includes engineering work on landmark projects like the extension of the British Museum (London), BMW Museum (Munich), Louvre (Abu Dhabi), and Museum of the Bible (Washington, D.C.).
Since 2018 they write a blog (http://www.gbros.org/) discussing Bulgarian and European politics. Their political articles have been published in The American Spectator, Epicenter.bg, Glasove.bg.