Serbian election highlights the west’s fears about Russia

Fears are growing in western European capitals, and even more clearly in Washington, about the increasingly assertive role Russia is playing in international diplomacy.

It is about Moscow’s involvement in the politics of the former Yugoslavia, and the delicate attempt to broker a deal between Serbia and its disputed former province of Kosovo.

On the face of it, the elections in Serbia will have little bearing on the international plans for a “supervised independence” for the territory. All the main political parties in Belgrade are opposed to any such move. But the balance of power could still be a critical factor in the willingness of any future government at least to negotiate with the United Nations-appointed mediator, Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president.

The trouble is that before any plan has been published, Mr Putin and his ministers have already made clear they will only back a settlement if it has the support of Belgrade.

"They are flirting with blocking a Kosovo settlement," a senior American official travelling with Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said this week. "It is hard to say what the Russians will do."

"To have Russia messing around in Serbia has a 1914 ring to it," he added, referring to the events leading to the outbreak of the first world war.

There is also European nervousness at evidence of a growing Russian presence in Serbia, not merely on the diplomatic front but also in the Serbian economy

On the same day, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor who is currently the chair of the EU, flies to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in which the future of Kosovo will be a key item on the agenda.
Officials in Berlin say Mrs Merkel will seek to persuade Mr Putin to play a positive role over Kosovo, both in persuading any Serbian government to negotiate in good faith and in backing, or at least allowing, a United Nations Security Council resolution to underpin future independence. But that now seems to be in doubt.
German officials say Mrs Merkel will be blunt. “If the Russians cannot help, then they should get out of the way,” it is said in Berlin. But the mood in Moscow is scarcely so helpful.
Who should allow a United Nations Security Council resolution to underpin future independence? Perhaps Germany and company need to read/re-read UN1244!
But no, Russia should rollover and allow the Germanic program of dismantling Serbia/Yugoslavia to continue.
Then we have the American Germanophile bozo chiming in.
“To have Russia messing around in Serbia has a 1914 ring to it,” he added, referring to the events leading to the outbreak of the first world war.

Was that 1914 or the 1940's? Nazi Germany's "Greater Albania" has a familiar ring to it.

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