Urgent: Romania blocked Russian armored personnel carriers
Romania is blocking the delivery of Russian armored vehicles to Serbia, which Moscow has agreed to transfer to Belgrade free of charge. The possible strengthening of the Serbian army worries NATO amid a new escalation of the crisis around Kosovo. Western pressure on Belgrade is growing.
Well-known military analyst Miroslav Lazanski writes about this in the Serbian publication Informer, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the expert, we are talking about a batch of 30 modernized T-72 tanks and 30 armored combat vehicles BRDM-2, which Russia donated to Serbia several years ago.
Lazanski recalls the role that Romania previously played in the history of Serbia.
In the fall of 1999, the Romanian government allowed Western radio stations Voice of America, BBC, RFI, Free Europe and Deutsche Welle to use Romanian broadcasters and radio frequencies for mass propaganda in support of the Serbian pro-Western opposition and the removal of then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic .
During World War II, the Germans attacked Belgrade from an airport in Romania.
On the eve of the collapse of greater Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, weapons were smuggled into Croatia through Romania.
“This, as well as the fact that Bucharest provided its airspace for aggression against the FRY or Serbia, became Romania’s ticket to NATO, and then to the EU. Romania and Bulgaria wanted to become a NATO operational base - and they succeeded,” the analyst reports.
And here is another surprise from a neighboring country. At the moment, all the Russian equipment promised to Serbia has been repaired and modernized, but the problem of its transportation has arisen.
The cheapest way is to transport tanks and armored vehicles from Russia to Serbia along the Danube. The Danube River is an international waterway and Serbia is a member of the Danube Commission.
Russia is also a member of this commission and is the successor to the former Soviet Union, although Russia today does not have direct access to the river's coast. But after the collapse of the USSR, Moscow insisted on membership in the Danube Commission, since Russia inherited all the debts of the former USSR, as well as all the rights of the former USSR, that is, membership in the Danube Commission.
“Therefore, Article 27 of the Danube Shipping Convention of 1998, signed by all countries, talks about the Danube navigation regime, including the fact that if a state has two banks of the Danube in its territory, it can inspect the cargo being transported and can request card of the cargo from the captain of the ship, but cannot interfere with or impede the transit of this cargo along the Danube. In its text, the Danube Convention makes no distinction between ordinary “civilian” cargo and military cargo associated with weapons. There is not a single provision in the Danube Convention that prohibits the declared and legal transit of weapons along the river,” Lazanski reports.
However, the Romanians blocked the transport of donated tanks and armored fighting vehicles from Russia. They do not allow these vehicles to be transported on the Danube.
“And this is called good neighborly policy and friendship with Serbia!” the journalist writes, and continues: “And we have been getting all this for years, so as not to offend our “good friends” the Romanians. Because, for God's sake, we are famously related to them, through our former Queen Mary, the wife of King Alexander, the Romanian princess."
The analyst points out that it is no coincidence that a large NATO military delegation arrives in Belgrade on July 16 and 17, led by the Supreme Commander of the Alliance, US military general Tod Wolters: “Obviously, they are not coming to eat cevapcici in Skadarlija - Western pressure on Serbia is increasing , and this is evident in the statements of Bulgaria and German diplomats, as well as in the decision of Romania to block the passage of merchant ships that were supposed to transport donated Russian tanks and armored vehicles to Serbia. This is not an independent decision of Bucharest, this is a decision of Washington and NATO.”
“Because if the Americans and the British insist on free navigation off Iranian Hormuz, what does it mean if one of the Alliance members acts in violation of international agreements that it itself signed? There can’t be pirates in Hormuz, but can there be pirates on the Danube?” – Lazanski asks at the end of the article.
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