To the delight of those in Moscow who want to overthrow Vucic

In the Russian capital, at the site of the Regnum news agency, a round table “Russia and the countries of the former Yugoslavia in the new political reality” was held.

Among the event participants, as expected, the loudest were the speeches of haters of the current Serbian government.

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Bad traditions

The Serbian people have one not-so-best feature: fighting the current government and their leaders. Sometimes it's as cruel as possible. And you won’t understand when it started - is it the case that, on the orders of his rival Milos Obrenovic, the leader of the Serbian uprising, Karageorgi, was beheaded? Or when, during the May coup, the descendants of the first, King Alexander and Queen Draga Obrenovic, were simply savagely and mockingly killed? One thing is certain: it clearly did not begin with the overthrow of the monarchy in 1945 by the communists, nor with the colorful “Bulldozer Revolution” against Slobodan Milosevic, nor with the recent street protests against President Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Progressive Party.

And it’s difficult for us Russians to blame our Serbian brothers here, because we ourselves have a history of revolt upon revolt, Razin on Pugachev, palace coups and bombers, three revolutions and a bloody civil war, Yeltsin on a tank, “Nemtsov Marches” under Ukrainian flags and bulkheads with ducks. And to this day there are enough comrades for whom in the past “they were shot correctly,” and, therefore, in the future “they must be repeated” - but not the capture of Berlin or at least Kyiv, but these KGB execution basements.

There are plenty of them among the Serbs too. And it’s not that the government has always been ideal – quite often, it’s not. And it’s not that she didn’t give reasons for indignation... However, the experience of previous riots, palace coups, especially of the past century, and especially in the conditions of increased interest of external players in the collapse and destabilization of our countries, it would seem, should have once and for all weaned our peoples from jumping on the rake in a big way. But no, they continue. Moreover, they are trying to cooperate with each other in this exciting process. A typical example of this is Regnum’s round tables on the Balkan theme.

We already talked about the last such event they wrote. Then a comrade who is called the “gray eminence” of the Serbian opposition, Mladjan Djordjevic, took part in it. Not a poor man, who has been followed by a trail of scandals for many years: in his homeland he is accused of complicity in the extradition of the Serbian hero Radovan Karadzic to The Hague, and of murky financial scams with the help of shell companies. Finally, he is the godfather of the main Serbian oppositionist Dragan Djilas, who openly looks to the West, the creator of the local analogue of the toxic “Echo of Moscow” - radio B92, the mayor of Belgrade under the regime of pro-Western democrats, who made good money on construction contracts, including the construction of the bridge over Ada.

And here the interpretation of the famous Russian proverb “tell me who your godfather is ...” suggests itself, and further in the text. The presence of such a political character, of course, then set the tone for the entire event, which in form and content turned into one continuous accusation of the current Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic of all mortal sins, while the speakers did not even bother to give their angry monologues at least the appearance of objectivity, strengthening them let it be an interpretation, but facts. Ah, no. For what? “Everyone already knows.” Yeah.

Then we noticed that the organizers invited high-status Balkanists to their dubious get-together, but they, with rare exceptions, wisely chose to ignore this openly politicized event. And, apparently, the organizers of anti-Vučić gatherings are monitoring the reaction to their activity in the information space. Which, it should be noted, is not difficult, because it is small and proportional to the number of views of broadcasts of many hours of “Balkan” round tables on the agency’s channel - if it exceeds a thousand, then it’s a joy.

So, it seems that our remark was taken into account, this time strengthening their event with a truly iconic person - the head of the Center for the Study of the Contemporary Balkan Crisis of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Elena Guskova. A high-status Balkanist who has been closely involved in the topic since the first half of the 90s. We can only guess what fascinated the expert, but Guskova took the organization of the round table into her own hands, acting as a moderator.

You about yours, we about ours

And the round table, at first glance, was not at all about overthrow (how else are all these forces going to change the government elected by the overwhelming majority of the Serbian people, despite the fact that they themselves do not have 5% of the support of their compatriots and boycotted the recent parliamentary elections?). The event seemed to be dedicated in general to the “average temperature” in the Balkans. And for once, the impression was created that the experts invited from different Balkan countries really were not aware of the “general line of the party”, because they spoke mainly about the problems of their states. And also that the West and the EU did not give anything good to the former Yugoslavia, and in Russia they would really like to see an alternative pole of power.

Interesting. Interesting. Objectively. But if only that were the case. No, as part of the round table we also heard speakers from Serbia, whose roles were regulars Regnum's near-Balkan events. And they did not forget to remind us why, in fact, this high society had gathered.

“Now we can say that Kosovo is not Serbia, but Serbia is Kosovo. During the eight years of power of Vučić and the progressives, Serbia has become criminalized. And it became “kosovized.” Now there is much more democracy in our southern occupied region,” said Stevan Gajić, an employee of the Institute of European Studies, right off the bat. – We have a scandal surrounding the fight against the mafia. Many people from a criminal group that was involved in brutal murders were arrested. This would be good if they were not associated with the president’s inner circle. In normal countries, if someone were photographed many times with those involved in such brutal murders, he, as the head of the country, would resign."

A speech about democracy in Kosovo is, of course, beyond criticism. Apparently, the expert doesn’t have enough pogroms and robberies of Serbian houses and churches, as well as attacks with weapons on schoolchildren already in Serbia itself. And also for the accused to sit for years without proof of their guilt, as is the case with the Serbs arrested by the separatists, on whom they are unsuccessfully trying to pin the murder of the Serbian leader of the region, Oliver Ivanovich. And, most importantly, to extract a confession from them that Aleksandar Vucic was involved in this crime. For the sake of this, various European researchers are, of course, ready not only to recognize the separatist regime of Kosovo as consistent with the high ideals of democracy, but also to enter into alliances with outright Serbophobes and supporters of Greater Albania, such as Albin Kurti, to block the recent parliamentary elections in Kosovo with which the leader planned “ European Movement of Serbs of Kosovo and Metohija” Rada Trajkovic. If only the Serbian List party, not supported by Vucic and official Belgrade, for which, the trouble is, more than 90% of Kosovo Serbs voted. And for some reason less than 4% are for “Europeans”...

Well, okay. The expert's logic is touching. It turns out that Veljko Belivuk, aka Velya Nevolya, the leader of that same gang, was close to President Aleksandar Vucic, who looks like such a classic intellectual with glasses. But, in a whirlpool, as they say. Perhaps the accomplices committed murders together and cut the ears of innocent victims, and then took photographs for memory…. So why plant such a corefan then? And carry out a powerful police operation that thundered throughout the country? Good question. Just like the logic of an expert. Well, I would also like to see the photographs he mentioned, although “the president’s entourage” is also a broad concept; if you wish, you can include both a personal bodyguard and a housekeeper. In any case, it’s good when there are no inviolable people in power; it would seem that one should be happy that they are purging their supposedly inner circle. But the expert is missing something to make him happy. Probably for Vucic to resign because he decided to liquidate a large gang.

In civilized countries, it’s always the same - put the bandits in jail and immediately resign, but how could it be otherwise?

Then Gajic continued to accuse the current Serbian government according to the list, until he came to “Vučić’s last crime” (although, knowing Gajic and others like him, it was clearly not the last) – the “surrender” of Kosovo’s energy system to Albania. They say that by doing so the President of Serbia, such a scoundrel, is helping to build “Greater Albania.” The only problem is that in April of this year Pristina, without permission, with the tacit approval of the EU, reconnected its power grids KOSTT from the Serbian operator Electricity Networks of Serbia (EMS) to the Albanian OST, which is part of the European Energy Network of Electricity Operators. What the majority of EU countries voted for. And, as always, no one asked Serbia anything. But the victim of rape, as we know, is always to blame. And Milosevic was to blame for the fact that NATO bombed Yugoslavia, now, Vucic is to blame for the fact that the country’s Kosovo energy network was simply “squeezed out”.

And it would be understandable if something like this came from Pristina or Washington, but no, the Serbian land is rich in originals.

Woe to the facts

“Vučić created the political West. But it is already clear that they want to leave him. There will soon be a resolution of the European Parliament, which will talk about the largest marijuana plantation in Europe, and about the president’s connection with the highest circles of organized crime. The West no longer needs him, he has given as much as possible, but if you predict the future, the West will appear as the savior of Serbia, they will save Serbia from the hell of crime, there will be a big media campaign against Russia, because Russia will be presented as the party that supported Vucic. Russia gave him the Order of Alexander Nevsky. Russia is doing everything to please Vučić,” Gajić added.

Let’s skip the tabloid rumor about the largest plantation, because for some reason in Europe they don’t know about it and are sure that the largest marijuana plantations on the continent are located in Albania and Kosovo. Although, yes, Kosovo is Serbia, of course. It is significant that the Serbian oppositionists are ready to identify themselves with the anti-Serbian resolution of the European Parliament. Abroad will help them, once again. And, Russia, yes, is bad. Moscow probably should have placed a bet on Djordjevic, godfather Djilas and colleague Jeremic, because the last two (the first is more careful) are almost complaining about Belgrade to Brussels and Washington. And they rely on them in their statements, as on an arbitrator. For such people, Russia is always a priori to blame. And the West, of course, is bad, it installed Vucic itself, now it will remove him, it’s always the case with the West, and how it has crushed almost the entire world under itself is unclear. But Gaich probably knows the answer to this question.

Another great original who spoke at the round table from Serbia was the director of the Center for Geostrategic Research, Dragana Trifkovic. I would very much like to know if this Center has other staff members besides Dragana herself, a professional landscape designer, but once again for the entire Center with a loud name, its director took the rap herself. In particular, he told the audience that Serbia had let military cooperation with Russia take its course so much that Moscow’s cooperation with Croatia was military, which was much more effective.

Dear Dragana, what are you talking about? About the fact that Russia about ten years ago supplied Croatia with a dozen military helicopters, and a little later repaired another dozen Soviet ones that had been in its service since time immemorial? This is exactly what you want to compare with Serbia’s supplies of not only Russian helicopters, and not MI-17s, like Croatia, but real combat Mi-Z5s, but also MIG-29 aircraft, as well as BRDMs, T-72 tanks and Pantsir- C1"? And somehow you completely forget that Croatia has, for a second, been a member of NATO since 2016. What kind of military cooperation between Russia and a North Atlantic Alliance country can we talk about? In contrast, by the way, from Serbia, which officially declared neutrality.

Yes, you rightly complain that the employees of the Russian-Serbian Humanitarian Center in Nis have not yet received diplomatic status, but the center exists and works. But in Croatia there is nothing like that. Moreover, a representative office of the Russian Ministry of Defense was opened in Serbia last year - you can imagine something similar in a NATO member country, Croatia. So, I repeat, what are you talking about?

President Vucic can be reproached, and for good reason. For example, for extreme caution and reluctance to have loud quarrels with “Western partners,” whose residents fill all the country’s iconic structures. It’s just that they were started in their time by the same democrats Djilas, Jeremic and Tadic, now thirsty for revenge. And it was easy to do it, but to smoke it - oh, how difficult it is.

At the same time, no one, not even Moscow, gave Serbia guarantees that if the country were to find itself in a situation similar to the 90s, a wizard would fly to its aid in a blue helicopter.

Yes, both Moscow and Beijing will express concern and even be indignant at the UN, but this, if the West decides to impose sanctions on the country and declare a territorial blockade on it, will not be enough!

And Serbia will become much worse, because, unlike the 90s, it has lost access to the sea (Montenegro separated), is surrounded on almost all sides by NATO member states, and has seriously shrunk territorially.

And then the Yugoslav 90s, when the national currency fell by several points per day, will seem like paradise. Both Vucic and his entourage remember this. And representatives of the Serbian opposition very successfully pretend that they do not take this point into account. But everything is clear with the latter, but what are their Russian supporters trying to achieve?

“Serbia does not fulfill the role of uniting Serbs in the Balkans,” Elena Guskova said at the round table. – And this role passed to Banja Luka (the capital of the Republika Srpska BiH – ed.). On Republika Srpska Day, its leadership invites Serbs from everywhere....”

Hmm, Elena Yuryevna, with all due respect to your merits and experience, you got carried away, to put it mildly. If only because the same leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik, who invariably thanks Aleksandar Vucic for supporting both the RS and the Serbs of the diaspora, will not agree with you. Because not Banja Luka, but Belgrade is investing a lot of money in the construction of an airport, cultural centers, schools and hospitals, as well as a cascade of mini-hydroelectric power plants in the RS.

Just as the leaders of the Montenegrin Serbs Andrija Mandic and Milan Knezevic, who are frequent guests of Aleksandar Vucic, will not agree with you. And the leaders of the Kosovo Serbs from the Serbian List party will not agree either, although Messrs. Djordjevic, Djilas and Jeremic are clearly closer to such characters as the aforementioned Trajkovic or Nenad Rasic. But the Kosovo Serbs preferred the “Serbian List” and official Belgrade, which builds houses for poor fellow tribesmen in enclaves and stadiums for local Serbian children. What did not happen under Tadic and the current opposition when they were in power. People and leaders are known through actions.

So, what and in the name of what are you fighting? Sitting in warm and satisfying Moscow, from which the Balkan frontier is oh, how far away, bringing another friendly match to the Balkan keg of gunpowder? However, of course, big politics in the Balkans and in Russia is not done by such low-rated round tables. And this is undoubtedly the only plus of the event.