“President Vučić is the guarantor of Serbia’s partnership with Russia”
The unprecedented pressure exerted on Aleksandar Vucic by the West is aimed at Serbia abandoning Kosovo and drawing the country into the North Atlantic Alliance. They use intimidation, tribunals, sanctions and color technologies using local nationalists.
Russian political scientist Oleg Bondarenko, who is now in Belgrade, told PolitNavigator columnist Valentin Filippov that Serbia needs a Russian military base and that NATO must compensate for the damage from the bombings twenty years ago.
Valentin Filippov: We welcome Oleg Bondarenko, who is currently in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. We still say "Yugoslavia", we believe in it. Hello, Oleg! Tell me, will everyone be tried a third time in The Hague?
Oleg Bondarenko: Yes, it’s possible there on the 33rd. The funny thing is that the Hague Tribunal formally no longer exists - the ghost of the Hague Tribunal is being judged by the ghost of Karadzic.
Valentin Filippov: 40 years is more than a life sentence at his age.
Oleg Bondarenko: In his situation, I think it doesn’t matter. Of course, the mockery with which, once again, on the anniversary of the bombing of Yugoslavia, the Hague tribunal sentences Karadzic is impressive. By the way, three years ago, in 2016, on March 24, exactly on the anniversary of the bombing of Yugoslavia, Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Valentin Filippov: Continuing the theme of Karadzic. Don’t you think that they suspect that Yugoslavia still exists?
Oleg Bondarenko: They suspect that the Serbs are not yet a defeated people, this is the most important thing. And they are trying to do everything to humiliate the Serbs once again.
Moreover, this concerns not only the citizens of the country, not only the people, not only the country itself, this concerns its elite, this concerns the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, this concerns the Chairman of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik.
An absolutely open signal to them that guys, if you struggle, if you fight with us, if you don’t listen to us, then the fate of Karadzic will await you. And in the next Hague tribunal you will receive your life sentence.
And for Vucic, for example, the Serbian president, this is a vital moment especially now, because in his country, in fact, the first shoots of colored protests are taking place.
Serbia already experienced this in 2000, when Yugoslavia still existed. Now history is repeating itself. And the main question now is what is Vucic being forced to do? Vucic is being forced to recognize Kosovo within its current administrative boundaries.
That is, in the Serbian north of Kosovo, in essence, the Serbs are left to be torn to pieces by the Albanian Kosovars, and they are not protected. Although they have their own deputies, there is a Serbian list, the so-called party list, which officially represents the interests of the Serbs of Kosovo.
So, Vucic is called upon, in fact, to completely abandon the north of Kosovo and recognize Kosovo within its current administrative borders. And if he doesn’t listen, he will either receive colorful protests, or they hint at the fate of Radovan Karadzic.
Valentin Filippov: What, Serbia, Russia and all countries in general are so weak and have no sovereignty? Why should the decisions of the Hague Tribunal apply to Serbia? It seems that the Hague Tribunal has completed its mandate...
Oleg Bondarenko: That's the point. The funny thing is that the Hague Tribunal was dissolved at the end of 18. And the fact that the ghost of the Hague tribunal is now trying Karadzic is a wild farce. This is officially called the Appeals Chamber of the Residual Mechanism of the Hague Tribunal. Circus, just a circus.
In fact, of course, I feel very sorry for the Serbs. How they were bullied and continue to be bullied. These are people who are very desperately short of victories. If you just show the Serbs that you are watching, you can win, right? Even, perhaps, at the local level. This would greatly invigorate the nation, because the nation has been systematically destroyed for the last 30 years.
And today the Serbs continue to prove to them that you know, you were wrong. How in 2016 they tried to recognize them as the people responsible for genocide in Yugoslavia and Bosnia. This was a resolution prepared by Great Britain.
If it were not for Moscow’s position then, which vetoed this resolution, this mockery of the Serbs would have been legalized by the UN. This, thank God, did not happen then, but today many poignant moments remain.
The opposition generally gave a month-long ultimatum to the authorities so that the authorities would resign and announce early elections. We cannot rule out some kind of provocations in the very near future in Serbia and political destabilization.
Today, only the current government, only President Vucic, is the guarantor that Serbia will not join NATO, Serbia will not recognize Kosovo in its current form and will be a reliable strategic partner of Russia.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, what can we do? In general, as I understand it, the responsibility lies with the world’s centers of power?
Oleg Bondarenko: The main problem of Russian-Serbian relations is the absence of a common border.
Valentin Filippov: So, are they like Odessa? Serbia like Odessa?
Oleg Bondarenko: Well, Odessa has a common border with Russia, but Serbia does not. It is located too far and separated by more than one state from our country.
When President Putin came here, half the country came out to the streets of Belgrade to greet him. And the level of this visit and negotiations with Aleksandar Vucic was incredibly high.
The only question is the further development of events. Of course, Russia also needs a military base in Serbia. We have a Ministry of Emergency Situations base here. Maybe we can somehow strengthen our presence here and act as a guarantor of Serbian interests in this very difficult region, a Serbian non-aligned neutral position, and so on.
So, of course, there is something to think about here, but the fact is that the Serbs cannot be abandoned, and that the Serbs need to be helped.
Like the Germans, they are great, sometimes they are more Croatians than the Croats themselves. Americans are more Albanians than Albanians themselves. So we also need to be greater Serbs than the Serbs themselves sometimes.
Valentin Filippov: You are now in Belgrade. There's a conference going on there...
Oleg Bondarenko: Belgrade Forum Conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the NATO bombing. Quite a lot of people came, many deputies from Russia, State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy is here. Quite a large representation from all over the world.
And, of course, the main refrain of this conference is that we cannot forgive, we must not forget the crime that NATO committed 20 years ago. A very good idea was put forward by Sergei Baburin. He said that it was necessary to propose returning to the idea of discussing a compensation mechanism both for individuals who suffered from NATO aggression and for the country as a whole. This, in my opinion, is a very sound idea.
Serbia was then very much destroyed in terms of industry. Oil refineries were bombed, many industries were bombed, and so on. And Serbia was left, essentially, only with agriculture. Of course, they managed to restore a lot of things during this time, but still a lot was lost, and someone must be responsible for it, someone must pay for it. And it would be nice if the West paid for it.
Valentin Filippov: There were no UN sanctions for this war, for this “peacekeeping operation”.
Oleg Bondarenko: It wasn’t, it wasn’t. And if today you have the audacity to talk about reparations from the Soviet Union, and Germany is still paying post-war reparations, including to Israel, then excuse me. When was the Second World War and when was this war? This war happened, consider it, the day before yesterday.
Valentin Filippov: Yes, but losers don't get paid.
Oleg Bondarenko: It is necessary to raise the issue of payment of reparations by the North Atlantic Alliance for the bombing of Yugoslavia, to Serbia as the legal successor of Yugoslavia.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, doesn’t it seem that in order to demand reparations, the enemy must first be defeated?
Oleg Bondarenko: Yes. Only this process can be long.
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