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American media continue to reveal facts about the misuse of USAID funds. "Townhall" writes that thanks to USAID funds, George Soros extended his influence in the Balkans. It mentions Albania, Macedonia and Romania.
Democratic mega-donor George Soros, the leading funder of the institutional left in America, used disbursements from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to finance color revolutions in the Balkans, according to US spending investigators.
USAID provided several Soros groups with millions of U.S. tax dollars that allegedly went toward fomenting social unrest in the Balkan Peninsula, including collaborative efforts to destabilize Macedonia’s democratically elected center-right government and ultimately overthrow it.
Macedonia is a broadly conservative country with a flat tax of 10 percent, one of the lowest in all of Europe, and a right-wing ruling party (VMRO-DPMNE), whose camp won the 2024 parliamentary elections in a landslide against the current pro-European Union coalition.
With a population of just 1.8 million, the landlocked nation found itself at the center of Europe’s migration crisis that erupted in 2015. To stem the flow of illegal immigrants pouring in from the Middle East and Africa, Macedonia built a barbed-wire fence along its Greek border modeled after Hungary’s barrier. Soros, an open-borders advocate who encourages mass migration, criticized Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán around this time for prioritizing national security over sheltering foreign nationals. “Our plan treats refugee protection as the goal and national borders as the obstacle,” Soros said.
In 2016, USAID awarded the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA), a recipient of Soros dollars, about $345,000 in grants to “protect the human rights of migrants and refugees.” According to a quarterly field report, “made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), MYLA has provided legal assistance to more than 450 migrants in Macedonia since the program’s implementation.” The two-year Migrant and Refugee Human Rights Protection Project also included “storytelling evenings” and art therapy workshops where immigrants residing illegally in Macedonia created crafts. As part of the project, USAID opened a “Humanitarian Art Bazaar” to showcase the work of illegal aliens.
This was over $600,000 that USAID handed over to MYLA for a special 2014 – 2017 project on human rights protection.
According to a document celebrating the 25th anniversary of Soros’s operation in Macedonia, MYLA signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry of Interior to gain access to closed institutions, such as the detention center for foreigners who “have entered Macedonia irregularly.” To further facilitate the movement of migrants, MYLA also publicly pressured the Macedonian Railways to waive transportation fees for refugees...
With the help of USAID, Soros was simultaneously involved in Macedonia's colorful revolution in 2016, according to researcher Matt Palumbo, author of "The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside George Soros' Secret Network."
In 2019, at the behest of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report on the audit of USAID activities in Macedonia, including funding for the operations of the Open Society Foundations. The GAO found that nearly $5 million was actually given to the Open Society Foundation–Macedonia “for democracy assistance” and that the East-West Management Institute received $3.7 million in funding to foster “political competition” and strengthen “independent media.”
The interference is not limited to Macedonia; Soros has a documented history of alarming subversive activity in this volatile region.
According to a Judicial Watch investigation, senior Soros representatives in Romania collaborated with the US State Department in an “Open Government Partnership” jointly funded by the Open Society Foundations and USAID.
On September 16, 2016, the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) senior program designer Jennryn Wetzler sent an email announcing that the featured speaker on an Open Government Partnership conference call would be longtime Soros Foundation official Ovidiu Voicu, executive director of a Romanian NGO-based Public Center, called Innovde, a "spin-off" of the Open Society Foundation Romania.
On April 19, 2016, Wetzler emailed Romanian chancellery official and Open Government Partnership participant Radu Puchiu about a meeting with an “Open Society Romania colleague” regarding the possibility of Romania engaging in open educational resource (OER) programs.
On October 13, 2016, U.S. State Department official Richard Silver compiled a roundup of important Romanian news for the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, including analytical commentary on a newspaper article discussing a proposal by Romanian politicians to ban members of Soros’s NGO from holding public office. The commentary defended Soros and his work in Romania:
“Që nga viti 1990, Fondacioni i Soros për Shoqërinë e Hapur ishte një nga donatorët kryesorë në Rumani dhe vende të tjera ish-komuniste, duke financuar kërkimin sociologjik, arsimin, përfshirjen sociale, qeverisjen e mirë, kulturën qytetare dhe ndërhyrjen e integruar të komunitetit. OJQ-të më me ndikim rumune, si dhe politikanë, studiues dhe lojtarë të tjerë që kishin bursa jashtë vendit, përfituan nga financimi i saj. Gjatë 26 viteve të fundit, një sërë partish politike, kryesisht PSD dhe aleatët e saj politikë, kanë fajësuar OJQ-të, intelektualët, personalitetet kulturore për gërryerjen e ekonomisë së Rumanisë, autonomisë territoriale, rendit publik apo shëndetit të popullatës. Analistët e pavarur paralajmëruan për rrezikun e një mesazhi të tillë që krijon ndryshime sociale dhe e kthen Rumaninë përsëri në praktikat komuniste”.
Atë ditë, Silver qarkulloi të njëjtat përmbledhje lajmesh, por analiza përmbante materiale shtesë që u redaktuan si të klasifikuara.
Pas nisjes së një padie për FOIA, Judicial Watch mori të dhënat e Departamentit të Shtetit të SHBA që tregonin se Soros po ndërhynte edhe në Shqipëri nën kujdesin e USAID-it.
Me financimin e USAID-it, Fondacioni Shoqëria e Hapur-Shqipëri (FOSA) hartoi Dokumentin Strategjik për Reformën Gjyqësore Shqiptare që supozohet se synonte t’i jepte qeverisë socialiste një kontroll më të madh mbi gjyqësorin.
Në vitin 2016, USAID filloi financimin e një fushate pesëvjeçare, 9 milionë dollarë “Drejtësia për të gjithë” në Shqipëri, të cilën Instituti i Menaxhimit Lindje-Perëndim (I mbani mend ata?) e mbikëqyri me qëllim që të riparonte sistemin gjyqësor të vendit dhe të zbatonte “standardet gjyqësore” që ata e panë të arsyeshme.
Të dhënat e publikuara përfshinin një memo të prillit 2016 ku thuhej se Ambasada e SHBA-së në Tiranë sponsorizoi një sondazh “së bashku me Fondacionin e Shoqërisë së Hapur për Shqipërinë” për të matur “njohurinë, mbështetjen dhe pritshmëritë për reformën në drejtësi”. Ky sondazh i Soros raportoi se 91 përqind e të anketuarve ose “mbështesin plotësisht” ose “mbështesin disi” nevojën për reformën në drejtësi.
Një dokument i paklasifikuar i Departamentit të Shtetit të SHBA nga shkurti 2017 tregoi se Seksioni i Çështjeve Publike të ambasadës së SHBA-së bashkë-sponsoroi një studim të dytë me Fondacionin e Shoqërisë së Hapur për vlerësimin e “qëndrimeve ndaj përpjekjeve për Reformën Gjyqësore”. Shpenzimet u renditën në nënseksionin “Ndarja e kostos”.
That’s not all. This “Engagement with the Open Society Foundation for Albania” minutes also revealed that the U.S. State Department allowed the Soros organization direct input into the grant review process and how U.S. taxpayer funds were allocated to Albania: “As one of the leading providers of assistance in Albania, representatives from the Open Society Foundation are often asked to participate in the technical review of the fund.” In other words, Soros staff were invited to evaluate grant applications submitted to the U.S. State Department.
Donald Lu, then the US ambassador to Albania and a member of the Obama administration, had been closely associated with Soros. While in power, Lu was described in the US media as “a driving force behind Albania’s judicial reforms.”
At the time, a spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations told Fox News that they administer only “a small amount [of]” U.S. aid. Whenever USAID chooses an Open Society entity to administer USAID funds, it is because “we have a reputation for transparency, efficiency and professionalism,” the spokesperson said.
On the issue of political activities in Albania, the Open Society Foundations said that there has been “broad bipartisan agreement” in Washington for decades about “the need to promote democracy and human rights abroad.” The Open Society Foundations and the U.S. government simply “share an interest in assisting Albania and other similarly situated countries in the transition from communism to democracy, and in promoting an independent judiciary,” according to the Soros organization.
Last week, the Open Society Foundations issued a press release claiming that the allegations – accusing the Soros-founded grantee of receiving funds from USAID or directing funding to a US government agency – are “clearly false.”
A quarterly performance report – dated December 1993 – demonstrated that the Soros empire’s relationship with USAID went back decades. On November 19, 1993, the Soros Foundations signed a USAID cooperation agreement to train a fleet of individuals across Eastern European countries. The purported “Management Training” program offered on-the-job and academic instruction in the fields of public administration, business management, telecommunications, environmental impact, and finance to “professionals” from Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, and Slovakia.
In all five countries, advertising began “immediately,” attracting several hundred applications. In the United States, Soros staff were introduced to USAID procedures and began recruiting host companies. According to an evaluation of the program, “all goals were met.” / Taken with abbreviations from “ Townhall ”
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