Jeffrey Sachs: Grassroots Democracy Will Triumph.
Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs, spoke at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium’s Budapest Peace Forum on June 6 about various issues including the war in Ukraine and US-Hungarian relations. Sachs was asked for his thoughts on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that the 2014 revolution in Ukraine was a Coup orchestrated by the US. Sachs responded by agreeing that there was a lot of evidence to suggest that the US played a role in the violent overthrow of the democratically elected government, citing the intercepted telephone call between US Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt and Victoria Nuland. Sachs also criticised the US use of proxy wars, such as that in Ukraine, and said that European leaders needed to stand up to the US and recognise Europe’s interests. He also expressed his disapproval of NGOs working with governments to try and influence elections, saying that the US would not tolerate such behaviour in its own country. Finally, Sachs accused the US State Department of pumping millions of dollars into forces in Hungary that aim to undermine the country’s democratically elected government.
