Serbia, Russia and the captured Balkanists

On October 11-12, Serbia and Russia organized in Belgrade the jubilee ceremony of the 60th anniversary of the first meeting of the member states of the "Non-Aligned Movement", held in 1961 in the former Yugoslav capital. Serbia, as a new state admitted to the UN at the end of 2000, has nothing to do with the "Non-Aligned Movement" and is not even the founding state of that political-diplomatic movement of the 1960s. October 11, Serbia today is not even a member of the "Non-Aligned Movement". It is merely an observer state such as Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, etc. which also had Belgrade as its capital in 1961. But Serbia and Russia mobilized together to speculate with the city, where the first meeting of the "Non-Aligned Movement" was held 60 years ago and organized a diplomatic commemorative forum. It is something comical that Serbia organizes a costly diplomatic activity only because Belgrade was the capital in 1961, where the first meeting of the heads of state and government of the countries of the "Non-Aligned Movement" was held. It is as if Iran were celebrating the anniversaries of the famous Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill summits in Tehran in the midst of World War II in November 1943, just because it was held in the Iranian capital.

Serbia and Russia together invented a pretext and spent a lot of money to organize an international forum as a diplomatic spectacle, which they would use for their diplomatic and strategic purposes. Russia is essentially the behind-the-scenes organizer of the memorial forum, and Russian diplomacy worked hard to persuade many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to attend the Serbo-Russian spectacle. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who represented Russia for the first time at the ceremony, was de facto host of the forum, and Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic acknowledged it on October 11 when he stated that "Lavrov's name strengthens the character and level of this summit ”. Officially, Russia is not a member of the "Non-Aligned Movement" and the servility of the Serbian Foreign Minister, who reveals that the summit is strengthened by the Russian Foreign Minister and is not strengthened by some heads of state of some African countries, can not but sound miserable. who participated and who are among the founding states of the "Non-Aligned Movement" such as Ghana.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov dictated the political intonation of the Belgrade memorial ceremony and urgently held a one-on-one meeting with Serbian President Vucic on Sunday evening, October 10, and held a joint press conference, where the topic was outlined. and the central interest of Serbian and Russian diplomacy in organizing the commemorative ceremony of the "Non-Aligned Movement". The Serbian-Russian diplomatic theme in the October 11 spectacle was fixed in the blow of Kosovo, the EU and the USA, ie in a readable anti-Western and anti-Atlantic strategy.

Russian diplomacy is manifesting tremendous diplomatic and diversification activism in all international organizations and bodies, whether active or formal. In this context, it is paying special attention to its activity within the "Non-Aligned Movement", which, although it has become a formal movement, has 120 registered member states. This Movement has been reduced to a giant international diplomatic NGO, which has no mandate, influence or force engaging and binding on members, but simply meets once every three years to deliver speeches to each member state. But the "Non-Aligned Movement" with 120 member states represents a large and high diplomatic audience and with a lot of interest to set out positions and goals and of course to create influence, when it comes to powerful states like Russia. So Serbia and Russia committed forces, efforts and money to raise political figures at the October 11th commemorative ceremony in Belgrade under the pretext of the Movement's first meeting 60 years ago in the Yugoslav capital.

Moscow needs the "Non-Aligned Movement" as a forum and instrument to extend the presence and influence of Russian foreign policy in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and to present itself as if Russia has now embraced the founding spirit and ideas. of the "Non-Aligned Movement". The well-known Russian newspaper "Kommersant" wrote on October 11: "Russia's growing interest in the" Non-Aligned Movement "is not accidental. Russia received observer status in July. The Russian Foreign Ministry calls this commitment "a clear example of the closeness of our country's positions and that of the" Non-Aligned Movement "in many global problems." It is clear that Moscow is intensifying its efforts to intervene in the "Non-Aligned Movement" and orient it in the directions it wants, and in the first place to push it against the West.

In concretization of this strategy, Russia was reminded after 60 years to seek to join the "Non-Aligned Movement" and in July of this year was accepted as an observer state, at a time when the presidency of the Movement is held by Azerbaijan, which was a circumstance of favorable to Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, who represented Russia at the Belgrade Memorial Forum, delivered a speech and also read a special message to the Movement from Russian President Vladimir Putin, which speaks of the importance that Moscow is giving to the Movement for the interests of the veta. Lavrov elaborated on the well-known anti-Western theses of Russian diplomacy about the "war against the blocs", the opposition to the "new international order with established rules", etc. The Russian press reported on this occasion that "Russia joins the Non-Aligned Movement". It is a real irony that Russia, the state engaged at the top, representing a military bloc like the CSTO, aspires to become a superpower and establish its influence in all regions and seas of the world, presents itself as a proponent of political and diplomatic disengagement. How much Russia today can conform to the founding vision and motto of the "Non-Aligned Movement" for the "outside the blocs" line can only be explained by those who accepted Russia as an observer state, forgetting that Russia undertook aggression against Georgia. in 2008 and annexed some territories, and in 2014 undertook aggression against Ukraine, forcibly annexing Crimea and keeping the eastern regions of Ukraine still occupied to this day.

One of the main objectives of Serbian and Russian diplomacy in organizing the commemorative meeting of the "Non-Aligned Movement" in Belgrade was to strike at the independent state of Kosovo, as well as the US and the West, which support the independent and sovereign state. of Kosovo. The diplomatic gathering in Belgrade was an attempt by Serbian and Russian diplomacy to escalate their fierce offensive against international recognition of the state of Kosovo and to incite absurd unilateral acts of withdrawal of recognition of the state of Kosovo. Most of the 120 or so UN member states that have recognized Kosovo are from the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as among the states that have not yet recognized Kosovo, most are also members of the UN. The Non-Aligned Movement ". Therefore, Kosovo was one of the main reasons for the forced engagement of Serbian and Russian diplomacy to organize an international diplomatic meeting under the absurd pretext of holding the founding meeting of the Movement, when Serbia did not exist as a state at that time. The focus against Kosovo was signaled by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov at his press conference with the Serbian president in Belgrade on the evening of October 10, hours before the opening of the memorial ceremony, with attacks and threats against the state of Kosovo, proclaiming absurd theses that Russia will only support the solution that interests Serbia, and this solution must be approved by the UN Security Council, where Russia has the right to veto. It is readable that Russia's position is against the resolution of the conflict and the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, while officially declaring that Moscow supports only the solution that interests Serbia, ie only one party, its strategic ally.

The topics of Lavrov's press conference against Kosovo were used by Serbian President Vuçiç as a platform for his speech in front of the diplomatic audience of the representatives of the countries of the "Non-Aligned Movement". Vucic made Kosovo the main target of his speech, because Serbian and Russian diplomacy need to distort the truth of the realities of the problems and the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo in Brussels. In an emphatic tone, the Serbian president declared in the ceremony that “The most painful battle is to resolve the issue of Kosovo and protect the territorial integrity of the country. "Serbia is committed to compromise to maintain security in the region." Apparently the Serbian president must have been given inaccurate information as many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America do not know what is going on in the Balkans or the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo in Brussels and they can You lie as you like, because as former Serbian President Dobrica Cosic said, "lies are the virtue of Serbs." Vuçiiçi, Lavrov, Serbian and Russian diplomacy think that the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America do not know that Kosovo's independence from the highest legal tribunal of the UN, the International Court of Justice, in its decision of 22 July 2010 declared that complies with international law and UNSC Resolution 1244. The UN legal tribunal was set in motion following a request for a resolution of the UN General Assembly, which includes all members of the "Non-Aligned Movement".

In fact, Serbia and Russia mock both their "non-engagement" and the "Non-Aligned Movement", because exactly on October 11, the day of the opening of the commemorative meeting of the 60th anniversary of the "Non-Aligned Movement" and when the Serbian president and the Russian Foreign Minister were holding pathetic speeches at the big meeting about their countries' new love for "non-engagement", in Serbia the joint military maneuvers of the Serbian and Russian air forces codenamed "Bars 21" started. The two "non-aligned" states, Serbia and Russia, greeted the diplomatic audience of the non-aligned with a new round of gunfire and their shooters flew into the skies of Belgrade over the building where the noisy "non-engagement" commemorative meeting was being held. The Serbian president was even declaring to the diplomatic audience that "We are proud to be a militarily neutral state." According to the Serbian Ministry of Defense, in 2019 alone, Russia and Serbia conducted 96 joint military maneuvers.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Minister chose this moment to send from Belgrade to the European Union the clear message that Serbia is connected with Russia and not with the EU. During his stay in Belgrade, Lavrov repeatedly stressed the "special strategic partnership between Russia and Serbia." The Russian diplomatic message to the EU was that Moscow was advancing rapidly in strengthening Serbia's dependence on Russia and that the EU's hope that Serbia would go to Europe was illusory. "We have known for a long time that the EU claims for the Western Balkans and says that other countries do not have what they want here. This is a neo-colonial stance, "said the Russian foreign minister in Belgrade, dismissing allegations that Russia was interfering in the internal affairs of the Western Balkan countries and urging reporters at a news conference to provide evidence of such interference. According to him, there is no evidence of conviction by the courts in Montenegro of Russian secret service officers, who were sentenced to prison for organizing them together with the Serbian secret service of the failed coup in Podgorica in October 2016. There is no evidence according to him countless statements by the president of Montenegro denouncing Russia 's interference in the internal affairs of Montenegro. According to him, the Russian interventions in Bosnia and Herzegovina are not evidence, where Moscow is urging the fascist leader Dodik of the "Serbian Republic" to boycott the central institutions of the state, to create a separate Serbian army of Banja Luka and to hold a referendum on unification with Serbia. . According to him, there is no evidence of public intervention and inspection of the Russian ambassador in Belgrade and Russian generals to the Serbian intervention forces deployed on the border with Kosovo during the tensions provoked by Belgrade in northern Kosovo in September.

Lavrov does not call Russia an intervention in the Western Balkans, because Russian diplomacy considers the Western Balkans an area and a right of Serbian influence. It is no coincidence that the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zaharova, on October 10 officially defended the Serbian project of "Open Balkans" and another Serbian hegemonic project "Serbian world" to unite all Serbs of the Western Balkans into one state, because according to "The Serbian world is not in conflict with international law."

Serbia and Russia ridicule "disengagement" and the "Movement of the Disengaged", as they ridicule the "Open Balkans" and the captured Balkans. Serbian and Russian diplomacy dare to this extent, when they are convinced that they have before them heads of state or government who are obsessed with themselves and not with their state and people.