The journalist told how the current Serbian opposition insulted Putin
The current Serbian opposition, which regularly holds rallies in Belgrade, is represented by former officials who ruled the country after the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic. It was during their reign that unprecedented submission to the will of the West and a cooling of relations with Russia occurred. Playing on the contradictions of those times allowed the elite in Podgorica to achieve the neutrality of Moscow, which did not interfere with the process of disintegration of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and even initially considered Milo Djukanovic as a possible partner - unlike the then Belgrade leadership.
The correspondent of the Balkanist.ru portal in Montenegro, Igor Damianovich, writes about this in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
According to the author, a number of factors played an important role in shaping Russia’s incorrect attitude towards the Montenegrin separatist referendum of 2006, including the strong influence of personnel from the Yeltsin period.
“Another factor that determined Russian support for Montenegro in 2006 was Putin’s distrust of the then Serbian authorities. This was evident in the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Victory over fascism in 2005, when not a single representative of Belgrade was present at the Parade in Moscow,” the author writes.
He also recalls that Putin’s first visit to the still Federal Republic of Yugoslavia took place in June 2001 and began with a scandal, since he was met at the airport not by the head of state, as was supposed by the protocol, but by the prime minister. Moreover, during the departure of the Russian delegation, the Chief of the General Staff, General Anatoly Kvashnin, at first even refused to shake hands with the hosts.
“If hopes that Djukanovic would become an ally of Russia were wrong, then the wary attitude towards the then Serbian authorities was justified. In March 2011, Serbia, at the proposal of then Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, joined the EU sanctions against Belarus, which supported the FRY during the NATO aggression. Jeremić explained the decision by “obligations for Serbia’s accession to the EU.” It is likely that Serbia would have joined the EU sanctions against Russia in 2014 (as the Djukanovic regime did in Podgorica) if Boris Tadic and Vuk Jeremic had won the 2012 elections.
Vuk Jeremic and the sponsor of the current protests - ex-mayor of Belgrade oligarch Dragan Djilas
If in 2005-2006 a different government had been at the head of Serbia (for example, the current authorities led by President Aleksandar Vucic), then neither the Russian business elite nor the remnants of the Yeltsin administration would have been able to lobby for the Kremlin’s favorable attitude towards the destruction of the union of Serbia and Montenegro . But history does not know the subjunctive mood, alas,” the observer concludes.
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