pravdareport.com

Spy scandal: NATO uses Macedonia against Serbia

23.08.2017

 

 

Intelligence services of leading NATO countries have recently intensified their subversive activities against Serbia. Today, this is the only republic of the former Yugoslavia that does not want to join the North Atlantic Alliance. Belgrade accuses its neighbor Macedonia of espionage with the participation of a foreign factor, which is, of course, NATO. Will Belgrade be able to maintain its independence in the struggle?

Today, Serbia is the only bastion on the territory of the former Yugoslavia that remains opposed to NATO's expansion in the region. All other republics of the former Yugoslavia have either already joined the North Atlantic Alliance (Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro), or are only going to do it (Macedonia).

It is no coincidence a big diplomatic scandal has recently broken out between Serbia and Macedonia. Serbian President Alexander Vučić said he had irrefutable evidence to prove that Macedonia launched large-scale intelligence activities with the participation of a foreign factor in Serbia.

Although Serbia does not point directly at NATO, there is no doubt that it goes about efforts of the North Atlantic alliance and the CIA to conduct subversive activities against Serbia in order to change the balance of power in the country. Today, 80% of the Serbian population stands against Serbia's accession to NATO: the Serbians still remember how NATO bombed them.

Therefore, the NATO headquarters in Brussels and the CIA headquarters in Langley developed a joint secret plan to conduct intelligence and propaganda work in Serbia in order to change the attitude of the Serbs to NATO.

On 20 August 2017, the Serbian Ministry for Foreign Affairs withdrew its embassy staff from Macedonia to Belgrade for consultations. However, the Macedonian government rejects Serbian accusations of espionage on the Serbian territory. In addition, it became known that Macedonian intelligence agencies were illegally tracking down Serbian diplomats in Skopje.

Skopje does not have a unified position on the upcoming vote at the UN regarding Kosovo's accession to UNESCO. Earlier, Prime Minister of Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, stated that as a sign of solidarity with Serbia, Macedonia would abstain from the vote on this issue.

However, other Macedonian officials did not exclude that Macedonia will express solidarity with the position of the majority of EU countries regarding the accession of Kosovo to UNESCO. In other words, if EU countries vote in favor of Kosovo's membership, Macedonia will support this position too.

In this regard, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic reminded that Serbia could change its position regarding the name of Macedonia and "support the majority of EU countries that recognize Macedonia as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." Belgrade chose Skopje's version of the name - the Republic of Macedonia.

However, brushing aside the current scandal between Serbia and Macedonia, it looks like Belgrade succumbs to the influence of the EU and the US when it comes to the current phase of sharp confrontation between the West and Russia.

Here is a specific example. In October 2016, under the pressure of NATO and the CIA, Serbia deported several Russian citizens who were unfoundedly accused of spying on the Montenegrin Prime Minister. It was reported that Serbian intelligence identified Russian spies who "used sophisticated equipment to track the movement of Montenegro's Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic."

Naturally, publicizing such "evidence" against Russia, a brotherly nation that has always been on the side of Belgrade since 1991, could not but cast a shadow over bilateral relations between Russia and Serbia.

On the one hand, Serbian President Vučić says that "Serbia will always maintain friendly relations with the Russian Federation, despite pressure from the outside." On the other hand, Vučić recently announced that it was necessary "to seek a compromise in the conflict with the Albanians around Kosovo."

The latest statement from the leader of Serbia may mean that the EU leadership is exerting pressure on Belgrade. The EU gives Serbia vague promises to accept it into the European Union. Will  Belgrade take the side of the European Union on the issue of friendship with Russia and the status of Kosovo? We will find this out in the near future.

Aydin Mehdiyev
Pravda.Ru

 

sputniknews.com

NATO's Balkan Dream: 'Gaining Access to Key Strategic Facilities'

Sputnik

3-4 minutes

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Europe

10:58 20.08.2017(updated 11:57 20.08.2017) Get short URL

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has ruled that the Veliki Zep military facility in the country's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska is owned by the state. In an interview with Sputnik, Serbian political analyst Andjelko Kozomara said the decision could help Bosnia move toward NATO membership

"NATO wants to gain access to key strategic facilities. The Yugoslav Army always deployed its bases at strategic locations and by registering them as "prospective military property," the Bosnian authorities are making them available to NATO, which plans to station its forces there," he said.

He added that the Constitutional Court's ruling violates the terms of the 1995 Dayton Accordspeace accord under which 49 percent of the country's territory belongs to Republika Srpska.

By re-registering Veliki Zep and other military installations the Court is actually downsizing the territory of the country's Serb-dominated entity.

Re-registration of the so-called "prospective military property" is the final step in Bosnia and Herzegovina's bid to join NATO, the so-called "Membership Action Plan."

"Just like Serbia, the majority of Bosnian Serbs do not want to join NATO. If Serbia does not want to join NATO, then Republika Srpska will not let Bosnia and Herzegovina join this military alliance. We fear, however, that things may develop just as they did in 1992 when Croats and Bosnians voted in a referendum to break away from Yugoslavia. The Bosnian Serbs did not vote, but the international community still recognized the results of that plebiscite," Andjelko Kozomara continued.

Meanwhile, the vice speaker of Republika Srpska's parliament, Nenad Stevandic said that the re-registration of military property will by no means facilitate Bosnia and Herzegovina's integration into NATO because the Bosnian Serb Republic will not abide by the Court's ruling, which violates the terms of the Dayton Accords and creates a new crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He added that in a situation like this Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be able to join any alliances.

"They are pressuring us to set off a new crisis and blame it all on the Serbs. They have been using this practice since 1992 by making decisions we can't subscribe to because they deprive us of our legitimate rights, and then blaming us for 'destabilizing the situation'", Nenad Stevandic told Sputnik.

Commenting on the situation in an interview with Republika Srpska's news agency, the Russian ambassador to Sarajevo Pyotr Ivantsov said that matters directly pertaining to one of the country's entities cannot be decided without its consent.

"This is a fundamental principle of the federal makeup of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Ivantsov emphasized.

Sarajevo and Brussels have been discussing Bosnia's NATO membership since the mid-2000s.

Bosnia and Herzegovina joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program in 2006. It was expected to join NATO by 2011, but the plan hit a snag over the need to hand over more than 60 military facilities to the federal government.

 

The EU must show the Balkans they still have a chance of joining

Charlemagne

The EU must show the Balkans they still have a chance of joining

Europe's inner courtyard is drifting towards crime and authoritarianism

Jul 13th 2017

 

SQUINT, and you can just make it out. In a quiet suburb of Belgrade, a small European Union flag flutters from the seventh floor of a concrete tower block. Almost 20 years ago, during the dark days of Slobodan Milosevic, an engineer-turned-journalist called Zoran Cvijic hung the standard from his balcony to express his hope that Serbia might one day join the club whose values he so admired. Soon afterwards NATO jets pounded Belgrade to halt Serbian atrocities in Kosovo. Gordana, Cvijic's wife, feared the flag would bring the family unwelcome attention, yet it stayed in place. Cvijic died in 2015, still optimistic that his country would eventually take its seat at the EU table.

In 2003 the Balkan countries were told that their future lay inside the EU. Yet these days the hopes of Serbia and five other aspirants—Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro—are as faded as the yellow stars on Cvijic's flag. Weary of the endless rows that pass for politics in the Balkans, and burned by what looks like the premature accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, the Europeans have little appetite to expand their club further, especially as Brexit obliges them to manage its contraction. In 2014 Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said there would be no enlargement during his five-year term, a pointless gesture that weakened the hands of Balkan reformers. Today, just 43% of Serbs say they want to join the EU, down from 67% in 2009. Young people are notably hostile.

What has gone wrong? Accession would force the region's corrupt elites to allow media freedom, strengthen the rule of law and liberalise their economies, thus diluting their powers of patronage. Few want to do any of these good things. And their countries lack the strong bureaucracies that could drive through change. Of the six, only Serbia and Montenegro have begun accession talks. Albania hopes to start soon, Macedonia is hamstrung by its dispute with Greece about its name, Bosnia is mired in inter-ethnic squabbling, and Kosovo is not even recognised by five EU members. "They don't believe it any more when we lie to them about accession, and we don't believe them when they lie to us that they will commit" to EU rules, says Vessela Tcherneva of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank.

In place of hope, there is insecurity and even a fear of returning to bloodshed. The past year has provided several jumpy moments, from a political crisis in Macedonia that, with help from provocateurs in the Russian media, threatened to spill into violence, to tensions between Serbia and Kosovo that terrified European diplomats at the start of the year. If the region has lately calmed down (partly owing to the efforts of American diplomats), Germany in particular fears fresh conflagrations. Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign-policy chief, has been furiously working the Balkan diplomatic treadmill.

That means dealing with leaders like Aleksandar Vucic, who has run Serbia since 2014, first as prime minister and now president. Mr Vucic, a minister under Mr Milosevic, today paints himself as a pro-EU reformer and a credible economic manager. European officials say they have no choice but to work with him. Angela Merkel met Mr Vucic a few weeks before the presidential election in April. This infuriates liberal Serbs, who say the Europeans are indulging an authoritarian who engages in anti-democratic practices. Civil-society groups talk of an increase in mafia crime, the crushing of independent institutions and campaigns of harassment in state-controlled tabloids.

Where Europeans once pinned their hopes for transforming this region of 20m people on the accession process, today they place their trust in trade and investment. The Balkans are blighted by low growth and sky-high youth unemployment, and citizens vote with their feet. One-fifth of Macedonia's population lives abroad, and skilled Serbs are pouring into the EU. A summit in Trieste this week attended by the leaders of France, Germany and Italy sought to tackle these trends with plans for a regional common market and EU funds for infrastructure. As ever, lip-service was paid to the Balkans' "European perspective". But the EU's appetite for bringing about political change has evaporated.

Don't give up

The Balkan states are tiresome partners, beset by political bickering, crony economies and border quarrels over slivers of water or rocky mountain tops. But the EU should not give up on its dishevelled inner courtyard, if only because of the risks inaction poses. Parts of the Balkans are already established routes for human and drugs-trafficking into the EU, and weapons from the wars of the 1990s were used in the Paris terrorist attacks of 2015. Islamist extremism is popping up in parts of Bosnia and Kosovo. In this environment, the cynical games of local leaders, who often stoke crises in order to play peacemaker, could easily spin out of control.

Europeans often talk up the malign influence of external powers in the western Balkans. But the region's economic, political and cultural ties to the rest of Europe put Russia, Turkey and the like in the shade. Most leaders know they have no destiny outside the EU. That calls for a two-track approach: leaning harder on governments that tolerate lawlessness or illiberalism, and renewing the commitment to enlargement. But all this requires suspending the scepticism that has become ingrained after years of disappointment. Perhaps, if she wins re-election in September, Mrs Merkel could spend a bit of diplomatic capital on the Balkans.

At Trieste there was much talk of the Balkans at a "crossroads". In truth the region is on a never-ending roundabout of unfulfilled promises and bureaucratic wheel-spinning. Like most of her compatriots, Ms Cvijic is sceptical that Serbia will ever join the EU. She distrusts Mr Vucic's government and decries the dishonesty of Europeans who provide it with succour. But she has vowed to keep the tatty flag flying from her apartment's balcony. Her husband never gave up hope. Why should she?

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "Acceding expectations"

 

https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21725020-europes-inner-courtyard-drifting-towards-crime-and-authoritarianism-eu-must-show?zid=307&ah=5e80419d1bc9821ebe173f4f0f060a07

Serbia's President: 'I am Prepared For a Compromise Solution for Kosovo'

novinite.com

Serbia's President: 'I am Prepared For a Compromise Solution for Kosovo' - Novinite.com

3-4 minutes

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Serbia's president vowed to start a nationwide debate next month on unresolved relations with Kosovo and Albania, saying a "compromise" would fix most of his country's political problems for a century and open the way to European Union membership, according to Bloomberg. 

Aleksandar Vucic, speaking on Pink TV late Wednesday, said he was ready for the process despite political challenges it may create for him at home, where most of Serbia's 7.1 million citizens oppose accepting Kosovo as a sovereign country. Political parties that have called for its recognition have done poorly in elections.

"I know, whichever compromise you make, Serbia will not forgive you, and I know what the personal and political consequences can be for those who take part," Vucic said. "If we create an axis of peace and stability along the north-south line in the western Balkans, between the two biggest peoples, Serbs and Albanians, we will have solved 80 percent of our political problems for the next 100 years."

In the past few weeks, Vucic and other Serbian politicians have increasingly  spoken of their desire to move forward as EU-mediated talks between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians are expected to resume following months of little visible progress. Finding a solution is a key EU condition for Serbia before it can join the bloc. A resolution would also unlock greater cooperation with Albania, Vucic said. Unlike Serbia and Russia, most EU member states have recognized Kosovo's independence, which it declared in 2008 following the 1998-99 war.

Serbia's most popular politician, Vucic became president in May after three years of serving as premier. He has burnished his image as a pro-EU administrator who's trying to modernize the largest former Yugoslav republic's economy, a departure from when he was information minister for war-time leader Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s. Vucic said it was "important to have good relations with Albanians and to sort them out once and forever, instead of keeping a frozen conflict."

Debate within Serbia would help outline the negotiating position before talks begin. Changes that need to be addressed include amending Serbia's constitution, which says that Kosovo must remain part of the country, Vucic said. A two-thirds majority in parliament would be needed to do so. Out of 250 lawmakers, Vucic's party controls 131.

Vucic said Serbia, which has tried to juggle its EU hopes with keeping good ties with Russia, is under international pressure over the balancing act. 

"It's impossible to show up anywhere in the West without being asked about Russians, or Russians finding fault that we haven't done something that they consider to be in their interest, and which the West is opposed to," he said.

 

sputniknews.com

Ukraine Mulls Repetition of Croatia's 'Reintegration' of Serb Krajina in Donbass

Sputnik

4-5 minutes

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Europe

13:14 05.08.2017Get short URL

On August 4, 1995, Croatia launched "Operation Storm" against the Serb-inhabited territory of Krajina. As a result, the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina ceased to exist, thousands of people were killed and over 220,000 driven from their homes. More than two decades on, the Ukrainian leaders are mulling a similar scenario for Donbass.

Model disciples

© AFP 2017/ LIONEL BONAVENTURE

The idea of emulating the Croatian experience of "reintegration" in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics has been circulating in Kiev's corridors of power since the start of the armed conflict in Donbass three years ago.

"Croatia is a good example. While tolerating the existence of Krajina for three years, the Croats built up their economy and armed forces and then, in a matter of hours, their tanks wiped the separatists off the face of the earth," Yuriy Lutsenko, then President Poroshenko's political advisor, wrote on Facebook in 2014.

In 2016 Ukraine and Croatia set up a working group to provide consultative assistance to Ukraine on "reintegration of occupied territories." Croatia's then Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that his country was ready to share its experience of winning back lost territories.

The move invited an angry rebuff from Moscow.

"The casualties inflicted by the large-scale military operations in Croatia in 1995 – Operation Lightning and Operation Storm – are well known, as is the resulting forced exodus of around 250,000 Serbs who permanently resided there. We have reason to fear that recommendations by foreign "consultants,", which might encourage dangerous illusions among the Kiev leadership that a military solution is possible in Donbass, will do anything but improve security in Ukraine's southeast," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Unfazed by this, Ukraine's Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman said in June 2017 that Ukrainian officials should emulate the experience of Croatia, which "after a bloody war provoked by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic managed to take back lost territories and restore peace."

In an interview with RT, Yevsei Vasilyev, an expert on international security at the Russian State Humanitarian University in Moscow, said that Kiev was citing the Croatian experience in order "to apply its military aspect to the disobedient Ukrainians in the east."

"There are two reasons why the Croatian model is so appealing to Kiev. First, because it would help solve the problem with the help of a large-scale military operation, and, secondly, it would absolve them from any responsibility for the loss of civilian lives, because 'the winner gets it all,'" Vasilyev said.

© Sputnik/ Valeriy Melnikov

"Advised by their Western and NATO mentors, the Ukrainian authorities would like to use the 'Croatian scenario to get rid of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and bring Donbass back under Kiev's control. This is exactly what happened to the

Republic of Serbian Krajina

, which Croatia clawed back in 1995-1998," the expert continued.

He added that, just like the Croatia of the 1990s, Ukraine was now run by nationalists leaning back on Western assistance in their standoff with Russia.

"However, there is one big difference between the Croatia of 1995 and present-day Ukraine, and this is Russia, which will not allow any repetition of the Western scenarios of war crimes against civilians, much less in the vicinity of its borders," Yevsei Vasilyev emphasized.

The Donbass conflict erupted in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the Western-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in February.

Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.