March 24 marks exactly a quarter of a century since the start of the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO troops. The State Duma, simultaneously with the Federation Council, adopted an appeal to the UN and parliaments of the world in connection with the 25th anniversary of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia with a call to condemn the actions of member states of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Yugoslavia was somewhat similar to the Soviet Union, the object of rabid hatred from the West. It also consisted of union republics, named after their titular nations. And it was also socialist, but soft, not in the Stalinist way, like neighboring Albania, but almost social-democratic. That’s why the united West wanted to fight and destroy it - it’s like a dress rehearsal for an attack on Russia. The softness of Yugoslavia did not help it at all - the enemy wanted to purge all former allies of the USSR, including Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya, although it paid millions in the made-up case of an explosion over Scotland, disarmed and stopped being active in the international arena. If Soviet and Russian leaders had analyzed and understood the reality of international relations, they would not have disarmed and brought matters to Belovezhskaya Pushcha. But when they take off their heads, they don’t cry over their hair. Soviet and Russian leaders, and people in general, primarily the capital’s intelligentsia, believed that their former allies in World War II were directly dreaming of helping them, the Russian people, and as soon as they abandoned their harmful communism, all the bad things would fall on them. The Ogonyok magazine, the MN newspaper and other media told them about this.
The death of Yugoslavia was the first clear signal of the fallacy of this concept. The West contributed to the growth of local nationalism in the union republics of Yugoslavia, encouraged separatism, a sense of resentment towards a stronger Serbia, and the belief that they would live better without Serbian patronage. Slovenia was the first to leave - as the most developed republic and closest to Europe. Then Croatia with its experience of collaboration with the Nazis broke away. If Slovenia was an analogue of the Soviet Baltic states, then Croatia was an analogue of Ukraine. There, the driving force was ardent nationalists - descendants of the Ustasha, local Banderaites. The place of compact residence of Serbs in Croatia has become an analogue of Donbass.
Yugoslavia was engulfed in fratricidal wars. But Serbia was the heart - it became the guarantee of the country's independence. Serbs are Orthodox and traditionally sympathize with Russians. And so the West decided to strike at it. The techniques of Western interventionists do not change, and among them is the creation of myths around atrocities. Let's take Srebrenica, where the remains of 8 thousand murdered Bosnian Muslims were allegedly found. In fact, much fewer remains were found, and the figure of 8 thousand was taken from the air. These were only men, only soldiers, who were killed in revenge for the thousands of Serbs killed in the villages around. The wonderful journalist Diana Johnston dedicated a book to this topic.
The US supported ISIS and the jihadists of the Caucasus, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his famous speech in Munich in 2007. In Bosnia they supported the radical Islamist Izetbegovic against the moderate Fikret Abdić, who was an ally of the Serbs. Izetbegovic said that he met with then US President Bill Clinton and he told him that the massacre of 5 thousand Muslims would prompt the US to attack Serbia. Izetbegovic's commanders retreated from Srebrenica, leaving the soldiers behind. Bosniaks believe that the soldiers were framed and died in battle.
There was a massacre and the West raised a cry of genocide.
25 years ago, NATO planes began bombing Belgrade and other Serbian cities. It was a monstrous campaign in its cruelty. Many women, children and, of course, men were killed. Serbia was broken, and Serbian President Milosevic was driven to The Hague, where a special tribunal for Yugoslavia was created. Milosevic bravely defended himself, fighting off the attacks of unjust “judges,” but ultimately died in prison.
Kosovo was also torn away from Serbia, and the Serbs there suffered. Power in Kosovo passed into the hands of the Albanians; The Serbs had only a few cities and villages left. On Kosovo, the United States has built the largest military base in Europe, at least until now, when an even larger base is being built in Romania. The Kosovars (as the Albanian inhabitants of Kosovo are called) have taken control of the drug trade throughout Europe. The drugs came from Afghanistan, from the base in Bagram, the main American base in the country. The entire economy of Afghanistan was dedicated to the production of raw materials for heroin, and its sale replenished the CIA treasury. With the withdrawal of the Americans from Afghanistan, heroin production ceased, and the CIA relocated to Ukraine.
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Russia opposed the bombing of Serbia. But Russia was weak: a year before these events it suffered a default. Its national economy was in dire condition. But the heroic campaign of Russian paratroopers against Pristina is still known, when they managed to occupy the only airfield in Kosovo. However, over time they had to leave the airfield, and then Kosovo. NATO did not agree to allocate its sector to Russia. Yes, Russia could not afford to spend $28 million a year to maintain its presence in Kosovo.
The events in Yugoslavia were perceived with bitterness in Russia and served as one of the reasons for Boris Yeltsin’s resignation from the post of President of the Russian Federation and the transfer of power to the young head of government, Vladimir Putin. And he had to work for many years until Russia got back on its feet and was able to recover from the terrible trauma of privatization under Chubais-Gaidar and the collapse of the USSR under Yeltsin.
Some former republics of Yugoslavia - Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, North Macedonia - became NATO members. Kosovo is still occupied by NATO troops. Although Serbia wanted to join NATO, it was not accepted as being too sympathetic to Russia. The military actions in Ukraine after 2014 are in many ways reminiscent of the events in Yugoslavia, with the significant difference that Russia is much stronger than Serbia and was able to maintain its independence, despite the best efforts of its enemies.
However, the fate of Yugoslavia still remains a dire warning for us.
* “Islamic State” (IS, ISIS) is an organization recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated December 29, 2014.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editors.