Hm, maybe, but "imperialist Westerners" in the Balkans in the 90s? The main conflicts there were between ethnic groups. Sure, the UN and the NATO got involved via humanitarian interventions, but I doubt that it's seen as Western imperialism, at least the way I see the term used most often today. (Admittedly I can't say for sure, I'm not an expert on Balkan history.) And depending on how old the twins are - 20? - the worst of the wars was already over by this point. We saw that the Sokovians dislike the US, so it's likely there was some kind of intervention, but a lot could have happened in between.
But we don't know, because we don't know Sokovian history. Was Sokovia part of Yugoslavia? What happened during the Yugoslavia wars? I read that the writing in the village was Serbian Cyrillic, which pretty much makes it impossible that it was not involved in the Yugoslavia wars. A SHIELD base in the Balkans in the 90s seems surprising, it was such an unstable region and nobody would have been happy to have them there. Hydra having a long-term base in that region on the hand makes more sense, because they thrive on chaos; on the other hand it means that they have to have not insignificant influence in the region and be involved with the conflicts there to ensure their survival. Was Hydra secretly allied with Milošević? Did they supply weapons for the Serbian army in exchange for being able to conduct their experiments without any oversight? What happened after the wars?
I would love to read fic about Wanda and Pietro as Serbs. If Hydra was allied with the Serbs they could also have appealed to Wanda and Pietro on those terms: it's not too far from Nazi racism to the sort of ethnic racism that was/is present in this region, and as kids it's no surprise Wanda and Pietro couldn't see through it. There are examples of European far-right parties today trying to appeal to some Eastern European ethnicities, Serbs in particular, to gain voters, implicitly supporting the idea that they are better than others.
Here it becomes very important that the movie erased Wanda and Pietro's Jewish and Romani backgrounds, which I really really hate. Because as Jews and Romani Wanda and Pietro would have grown up faced with so much prejudice that I don't see how they would ever ally themselves with Hydra. It makes them completely different characters, and it would be so important to have these characters. Instead they are "generic" Eastern Europeans, as if something like that existed.
ETA: Maybe Sokovia is such a small nation (when did it become independent?) that it wasn't actively involved in any war, but it was bombed during the NATO intervention because Serbian troops used it to retreat and resupply (and also because of the weapons they got there, though Hydra managed to intervene so the castle wasn't bombed directly.) But because Sokovia wasn't actively at war its citizens blamed only the UN and NATO for attacking them. Maybe that could work. (Still doesn't explain why Wanda and Pietro focus their hate on the guy who built the weapons instead of whoever fired them, but whatever.)
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But we don't know, because we don't know Sokovian history. Was Sokovia part of Yugoslavia? What happened during the Yugoslavia wars? I read that the writing in the village was Serbian Cyrillic, which pretty much makes it impossible that it was not involved in the Yugoslavia wars. A SHIELD base in the Balkans in the 90s seems surprising, it was such an unstable region and nobody would have been happy to have them there. Hydra having a long-term base in that region on the hand makes more sense, because they thrive on chaos; on the other hand it means that they have to have not insignificant influence in the region and be involved with the conflicts there to ensure their survival. Was Hydra secretly allied with Milošević? Did they supply weapons for the Serbian army in exchange for being able to conduct their experiments without any oversight? What happened after the wars?
I would love to read fic about Wanda and Pietro as Serbs. If Hydra was allied with the Serbs they could also have appealed to Wanda and Pietro on those terms: it's not too far from Nazi racism to the sort of ethnic racism that was/is present in this region, and as kids it's no surprise Wanda and Pietro couldn't see through it. There are examples of European far-right parties today trying to appeal to some Eastern European ethnicities, Serbs in particular, to gain voters, implicitly supporting the idea that they are better than others.
Here it becomes very important that the movie erased Wanda and Pietro's Jewish and Romani backgrounds, which I really really hate. Because as Jews and Romani Wanda and Pietro would have grown up faced with so much prejudice that I don't see how they would ever ally themselves with Hydra. It makes them completely different characters, and it would be so important to have these characters. Instead they are "generic" Eastern Europeans, as if something like that existed.
ETA: Maybe Sokovia is such a small nation (when did it become independent?) that it wasn't actively involved in any war, but it was bombed during the NATO intervention because Serbian troops used it to retreat and resupply (and also because of the weapons they got there, though Hydra managed to intervene so the castle wasn't bombed directly.) But because Sokovia wasn't actively at war its citizens blamed only the UN and NATO for attacking them. Maybe that could work.
(Still doesn't explain why Wanda and Pietro focus their hate on the guy who built the weapons instead of whoever fired them, but whatever.)