
A group of Montenegrin intellectuals today reacted to the current socio-political situation in the Western Balkans and the attitude of the West to events in the region, calling on the West, the US and the EU to protect Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo from the Russian-Chinese policy implemented by Vučić.
The reaction, signed by Montenegrin intellectuals and reported by the media, states that “it is high time to talk openly about the status of the Western Balkans.”
“The United States of America and the European Union knowingly or unknowingly support Russian policy regarding this region.” Why they do so is hard to say. But if we were to illustrate the situation in the Western Balkans, the statements of the American Ambassador in Belgrade, Christopher Hill, and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borelj, on Kosovo, we could conclude that the West is holding Aleksandar Vučić’s hand. Why they do so – we do not know. If there is a naive belief that Serbia will secede from Russia, it will never happen. Anyone who knows Serbian political culture and the Serbian political scene knows that Vučić’s turn would mean his end. And Aleksandar Vučić is closer to Lukashenka in terms of values and intimacy than to any Western statesman,” reads the reaction of Montenegrin intellectuals, reports Telegrafi.
The reaction goes on to say that “the strange policy of the U.S. and the EU in this region is brilliantly used by Russia and China through Serbia, which behaves as a local hegemon that inhibits and freezes the integration first of its own citizens, and then of the citizens of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo “It is a classic “appeasement” policy, the consequences of which at the global level are paid today by Ukrainians.”
“This policy is not yesterday’s news.” It was operationalized with the Trump and Merkel eras, and now it is experiencing its peak. Montenegro fell in 2020, Bosnia recently (by Dritanization of political constellation), Kosovo is next and waiting its Dritan. What is manifesting? Vučić acts like a “Serbian Lenin,” his every political move is ideological. He believes that neutralization of all regional solid state-building policies and ideological pillars on which Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo rest is considered important states actually represents a prerequisite for the invasion of the ideology of the Serbian world. The ideology of the Serbian world does not appear with tanks as in the times of Slobodan Milošević, it now appears through regional initiatives, the economy, the media and resists a special war to undermine the basic principles by which the mentioned three states were torn away from the hegemony of Serbia,” it says.
Montenegrin intellectuals also point out that the platform is clear – there will be no close cooperation with Belgrade until Belgrade recognizes the genocide in Srebrenica, the existence of the Montenegrin nation and the independent state of Kosovo. “If this continues, in a few years all the policies that established Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo will be completely marginalized and their sharpness blunted. The time will come for populists, cheats, smugglers and local leaders to turn the Western Balkans into a colony of Western and Russian-Chinese politics, where dirty and criminal deals will end.”
“It is necessary to act as soon as possible with long-term plans. The issue of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo must be interconnected and operational. The West will not wait as long as possible because it seems to be only looking through the numbers and potential strength. Alone we are all powerless, together we are much stronger. And there are also partners in Belgrade , these are the few bourgeois and liberal forces that Vučić almost suffocated in Putin’s way.”, reads the response signed by Montenegrin intellectuals Adnan Čirgić, Aleksandar Radoman, Boban Batrićević and Andrej Nikolaidis./Telegrafi/