|
Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland tweeted today:
Pleased to speak with Serbian President @avucic to thank Serbia for
its support for Ukraine, ongoing efforts to address the humanitarian
crisis, and commitment to regional stability. We welcome Serbia’s
good relations with neighbors & continued progress along its
European path.
It would be hard to write two sentences with more misconceptions.
Other than the volunteers joining pro-Russian forces there, Serbia
has offered Ukraine little. Belgrade voted for the General Assembly
resolution denouncing Russian aggression. Serbia has also said it
will accept Ukrainian refugees, but how many and through what
channels is unclear. If it were to accept them in the same
proportion as its adveraries in Kosovo, the number would be upwards
of 15,000. Belgrade has also promised medical assistance, but when,
where, and how is unclear.
What is clear is that Serbia has refused to join international
sanctions against Russia, despite its commitment to align its
foreign policy with the EU:
This is nothing new. At last count, the EU viewed Serbia as 56%, far
less than its neighbors. Albania and Montenegro were fully aligned,
with North Macedonia at 96% and Bosnia and Herzegovina at 70%.
Serbia is a primary factor in regional instability, not stability.
Its leadership is calling for a “Serbian world,” analogous to
Russian President Putin’s calls for a “Russian world.” That is one
of the goals that precipitated the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Serbia’s Montenegrin, Macedonian, and Kosovo neighbors were already
nervous about Belgrade’s massive re-armament before the Ukraine war.
They now need to worry about whether Serbian President Vucic will,
like Putin, claim genocide against co-nationals and invade one or
more of the neighbors. Serbia’s relations with its neighbors, in
whose internal politics it interferes, are notably lousy, not good.
Serbia is basically stalled on its EU accession path, for good
reasons. While it implements the technical requirements, it lacks a
free press and independent judiciary as well as a serious effort at
transitional justice. Petrit Selimi (@Petrit), a Serbian-speaking
Kosovar, tweets daily on the Serbian press. Today’s delicacies:
Here’s today’s Vesti, which has a front page big focus on “USA
bringing plague to Europe”. In small letters you can read about how
China and Russia have found proof USA and #Ukraine have developed
many diseases to use against Russians in the war. Quite sick.
(2) oldest newspaper in #Serbia, owned now by governments is asking
on front page “Who is collecting DNA of Russians”. It’s another
conspiracy theory peddled by #Moscow & #Belgrade that Ukrainians &
Americans have collected Russian DNA for special biological warfare.
Silly stuff.
(3) Another known tabloid, famous for warmongering, hateful
propaganda since 1980s, reports proudly “#Russia building its own
world in East.” This is done to counter “Washington threats” and is
“new global architecture”. A sinister, murderous version of
@MacaesBruno’s Euroasia.
(4) the tragedy in Serbian media scene is that former liberal media
have all now become affiliates or serventa of #Serbia government.
B92 daily starts with Russian version of the war events in #Ukraine.
Today they report Moscow lies on how “Ukraine planned for war in
March”.
To be fair, one still finds pockets of smaller newspapers, regional
web portals which are independent & try to counter official
pro-Russian propaganda in #Serbia. NGOs protested against war in
#Ukraine. However the dominant media are beholden to forces
supporting death & mayhem.
@Petrit
I’m well aware that diplomats sometimes feel they have to say nice
things about foreign leaders in order to bring them around. But this
is a case of blatant falsehoods parading as diplomacy. #fail |
