Serbian President Alexander Vucic began a multi-day trip to Europe. On July 9, a meeting of the Serbian leader with French President Emanuel Macron was held in France, and on July 10, an online summit of the leadership of the EU, Germany, France, Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo was held.
The negotiating positions are approximately the following: the West wants to legally consolidate the current status of Kosovo and therefore requires the President of Serbia to sign a comprehensive agreement on normalizing relations with Pristina as soon as possible. Pristina wants the same thing - to legally fix the current status quo in order to make his independence irreversible, moreover, without any consequences for them.
The Serbian side requires that the interests of the indigenous Serb population of Kosovo be taken into account, and for this, it proposes either a project to distinguish between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo, or an option to change the borders of a self-proclaimed republic, taking into account the real residence of Serbs and Albanians, or even exchange territories. The President of Serbia, Alexander Vucic, conditionally defines it as a “model of two Germanys”.
The option proposed by the EU essentially provides that Serbia legally recognizes Kosovo’s independence, while Serbs in Kosovo do not receive anything. They are echoed by Pristina. However, for the liberal EU, no Serbs, like Albanians, as peoples exist at all. The liberal approach generally considers any collective identity, especially an organic collective identity, which the people are, as overcome. For the EU, there are only citizens of Serbia and citizens of Kosovo.
According to this mechanical logic, if Kosovo is recognized by the West (partially) and is a national state (État-nation), then all its inhabitants automatically become citizens of Kosovo. There are no Serbs, there are no Albanians, gypsies and others, there are citizens of Kosovo, and that’s all. Therefore, who lives where and to which people he belongs to, from the point of view of mechanical liberal logic, all this does not matter: "Recognize Kosovo, inhabited by citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, as a given and sign it here." Everything else, the EU’s soulless bureaucratic machine simply does not hear and is not going to take into account. For them, the requirements of Serbia are incomprehensible, redundant and insignificant.
The Kosovo side understands everything perfectly: who lives where, how the Serbs differ from the Albanians, what is the difference between their identities. Like the fact that the power in Kosovo is now Albanian, not Serbian, the Albanians are the titular people, and the Serbs are not the titular people, that is, according to this logic, if the Serb is nominally a citizen of the Republic of Kosovo, then he is clearly a second-class citizen, a representative of the losing people who lost Kosovo, under pressure from the West came under Albanian control. It is clear that everything suits the Kosovo Albanians, because they have a power factor on their side. Therefore, their main task is to legally consolidate their political superiority.
Hence the wording with which the Kosovo Albanians came to negotiations. According to Vučić, their demands, which he has already declared unacceptable, look like this: “They require, firstly, the preservation of the territorial integrity of Kosovo, and secondly, the preservation of the Constitution of Kosovo. Third, long-term mutual recognition, not a model of two Germanys. Fourth, Pristina’s membership in the UN and the recognition by all EU member states of Kosovo’s independence. And after that, they will deal with the issue of missing persons and issues of compensation for military damage. "
And why not demand the unacceptable, because the Kosovo side, fully supported by the EU, is losing nothing. Neither in case of the consent of Belgrade, nor in case of disagreement.
Suppose, Vucic acknowledges EU requirements, signs a comprehensive agreement on normalizing relations with Pristina, formalizing the current situation, it’s good: the Kosovo authorities will use these newly opened additional opportunities for them without any losses. But he doesn’t recognize and sign - nothing, either: the Serbs are in their territory, under Albanian political sovereignty and power control. At the same time, they will remain just as disenfranchised, and when they resolve there - leave, assimilate, or die - a matter of time. Therefore, the Kosovo side is not in a hurry, it can wait another 100 years.
But Serbia cannot wait, but to push its own version, even such a weak one, which is a delimitation (we know how the Albanians are fulfilling any agreements) or even an exchange of territories (not for that the Albanians settled Kosovo, so that later they could take it and dutifully move out moving to other places), she is not able. Serbia simply does not have that kind of power.
If you look at the situation a little more enlarged, it is easy to notice that since the beginning of the 1990s, the West has consistently and systematically destroyed Yugoslavia, crushing it into parts, and since 1999, having bombed Belgrade, it has also systematically destroying and weakening Serbia now, in particular, cutting off Kosovo and Metohija.
This is part of the great geopolitical game of the West - a marine civilization against the East, Serbia, related to the Eurasian, land civilization.
And if Washington, the center of the Atlantic civilization, has been actively advancing all these years, then Moscow, the center of the Eurasian, land civilization, has either retreated (the 1990s), or is silent (the beginning of the 2000s), or speaks out, confining itself to words and not actions . But when Moscow begins to act, as, for example, in Syria, then the globalist machine of the West stops and breaks, and the world begins to rebuild from a unipolar model to a multipolar one.
Serbia’s voice will not be heard until the power factor is balanced. Until the presence of Moscow behind the back of Serbia will not be the same as the presence of Washington behind the back of Kosovo. Until Moscow begins to answer Washington symmetrically on the Kosovo question. Well, or at least asymmetrically. But just as confidently, consistently. The West understands only power - and this is an axiom.
Moreover, now is the right time for this. The globalist project is coming to its logical conclusion. The globalist elites in Europe were left without the patronage of Washington, which now has nothing to do with the backdrop of the re-emerging civil war in the United States. Of course, the globalists in Europe continue to be active by inertia, bend their fingers and swing rights, making themselves masters of the situation and continuing the projects that have already been started, but this activity is more like the activity of a chicken who was left headless but still cheerfully cutting circles around the yard.
The weakening of the globalist presence in Europe (and the Kosovo project is certainly one of the globalist projects) is a good chance to improve the situation.
As for the Kosovo situation itself, it certainly has its own positive solution, alternative to both legalizing the separatist enclave proposed by the EU and maintaining the status quo, which is quite satisfactory for Kosovo Albanians, but categorically does not suit Serbs.
It is important to understand that in Kosovo (as, indeed, everywhere, including the EU itself) it is not abstract citizens who live, but peoples - Serbs, Albanians, Gypsies and many others. And these peoples have their collective identity. And this identity has the highest value for them, and no one will ever give it up, but will fight with weapons in their hands - always and everywhere. Therefore, none of the conflicts can have a liberal solution. This is the starting point for any constructive dialogue and mutually beneficial negotiating position.
But until Russia takes the side of Serbia, there will be no equivalent dialogue between the conflicting parties. Serbs, as before, will be oppressed, the Albanians will continue to revel in their dominant position under the cover of the West, and the West will offer unacceptable to the Serbs, mechanical, liberal scenarios in which there are no Serbs. For only the presence of Russia - but not anyhow, but Russia in power - is the guarantor of peace and stability anywhere in the world, whether it be the Middle East or the Balkans.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.