/ world today news/ The European Union introduces a visa-free regime for Kosovo, which, from the point of view of some of its members, does not exist as a country. At the same time, another conflict threatens to flare up in Kosovo because of Brussels’ inability to influence its Albanian proteges. The European Union seems to be swallowing the Balkans, but the Balkans themselves show that this is the decline of Europe.
“We Serbs were lied to from the beginning, they deliberately lied to us, I no longer trust the EU representatives” “Supporting the so-called Kosovo and crushing Serbia is their ultimate goal.”
This is a selection of statements by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic from his interview on national television. The TV interview of the President of Serbia is a special genre in general. He gives them often and with pleasure – he feels at home on the air, since during the war for Kosovo he was responsible for information and propaganda in the Milosevic government.
Now there is also a war over Kosovo, but it is still diplomatic. However, they escalate day by day – to armed clashes and regular fortune-telling on the topic: will Belgrade risk sending troops or will it not risk yet. The current crisis is clearly on schedule, everything in it is foreseen. On Sunday, Kosovars held elections for the leadership of three Serb-dominated municipalities in northern Kosovo, the last stronghold of the “Serbian world” in the Albanian quasi-state. Serbian political forces are boycotting these elections, demanding that Pristina fulfill its ten-year commitment to create a Community of Serbian Municipalities.
The obligation is enshrined in the so-called Brussels Agreements, of which the EU was the guarantor. It is this situation that Vucic describes with the phrase “we were lied to from the beginning.”
For ten years, things have not moved from the dead point. The Albanians do not want to give autonomy to the Serbs, fearing that the question of separating these municipalities from Kosovo and returning them to Belgrade’s control will be raised later. And it cannot be said that this is just paranoia.
First, frankly, without such an operation, the ethnic conflict in the region will never end. Just as the Kosovo Albanian minority did not want to live in a Serbian state, the Serbian minority in Iber Kolasin did not want to live in an Albanian state. This is not only humiliating, but downright dangerous. Second, a criminal trial began this spring against the former president and de facto creator of the Kosovo quasi-state, Hashim Thaci. Things are moving towards an official statement that the “young European democracy” is the project of a thug and murderer, built on the bones of his victims.
But proceed from the fact that because of all this, Brussels will force Pristina to somehow come to an agreement with Belgrade, somehow not in the Albanian way. Why should the Kosovars fear theoretical territorial losses in the indefinite future, if they have not taken a single step to formalize Serbian self-rule for ten long years, and are now trying to impose the authority of the collaborationists in Iber Kolasin. Such a government will not represent the interests of the Serbian population, but if necessary, it will coordinate the entry of Albanian special forces into Serbian lands – such a clause is also in the Brussels Agreements.
In short, it will be hot again after the elections. But most likely, the trial with the last argument, that is, the force, will again be postponed indefinitely, as it has been postponed for all these ten years and even more. Because no one needs a full-fledged war anymore – neither Belgrade, nor Pristina, nor Brussels. More will be lost than won.
But Vucic seems to insist that neither he nor the Serbs of Iber Kolasin, who have their own heads on their shoulders, will wait any longer – let the Albanians deliver what they promised immediately. This request is mainly directed at the EU, although the Europeans have rather limited opportunities to influence the Kosovars. If the Albanians obey anyone, it is the USA, and Washington is no longer interested in the Balkans – there are enough other problems.
It was assumed that the notorious Community of Serbian Municipalities would be bought by Pristina in exchange for a visa-free regime with EU countries. The European structures have already approved its introduction at the end of the year, and even those countries that do not officially recognize Kosovo: Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia have signed it.
That is, these EU members will let people with passports into their territory, which for their officials is not a document, but a piece of paper. And this despite the fact that Kosovo is still a pirate region where smuggling, drug and arms trafficking are vital parts of the national economy.
Interestingly, around the same time, the authorities of Albania – the mother country of the Kosovars (except for the US, of course) – canceled the visa-free regime for Russians. Or, more precisely, they canceled the long-standing practice, according to which this regime operated from the beginning of May to the end of September – this is how Albania attracted Russian tourists to its Mediterranean resorts.
This year there may be even more tourists, and the local population’s need for Russian (including) money will remain the same. However, Tirana made a deliberately unfavorable economic decision, submitting to Western pressure. There, as you know, they are working on a new version of the “iron curtain” to lower it in front of the Russian Federation. And they have been trying to wrest all signs of Russian influence from the Balkan region since 2014 – and, alas, quite successfully.
But it is strange to be offended by the Albanians in Tirana: their country is not the one capable of claiming political sovereignty. But the European Union could, but for the umpteenth time in the last year and a half, it is shooting itself in the foot.
Even if we do not take into account the notoriety of the Kosovar-Albanian diaspora, which is waging real criminal wars in a number of Western European countries, this is something unheard of: to allow visa-free citizens of a country that does not exist for Spain or Greece, located relatively close to Kosovo.
Against the background of everything that is happening (in Europe, in the Balkans and specifically in Kosovo), this may seem like a trifle, but this seemingly trifle is one of the clearest examples that for the EU authorities, the practical interests of the citizens of the “united continent” are not a priority, unlike participation in American geopolitical projects, such as the separation of Kosovo from Serbia and support for the Zelensky regime in Ukraine.
This should be remembered by Vučić, who still talks about the EU’s role in the Kosovo conflict in trust-distrust categories. This is not a matter of trust, although US proteges are definitely not to be trusted. The question here is the real possibility of European officials and European leaders to influence the fate not only of Kosovo, but also of their own countries. They easily fit into adventures that lead at best to new local threats to Europe, as in the case of the bandit state of the Kosovar, and at worst to an existential one, such as the conflict with Russia over Ukraine. But so far they have not been able to get away from these adventures or to deploy them to their (not American) advantage. And there is no reason to guess what will happen later.
And in Russia, it is worth recalling this history every time the EU tries to work with categories such as “international law”, “territorial integrity” or “invalid passports”, blocking movement and business opportunities for residents of Crimea, the new regions of Russia and Russia as a whole (in a number of EU countries it is forbidden to issue visas to all Russians).
This is not only the hypocrisy of “light-hearted politicians”, but also something that seems to be the exact opposite – political impotence. Get your sovereignty back and then we’ll talk.
Translation: V. Sergeev
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for the channel or in Telegram:
#Balkans #confirmed #absence #conscience #strength
