Fehlinger: Putin is the new Milosevic, civilized world must stand united against such atrocities

Austrian economist Gunther Fehlinger, in an exclusive interview with TheGeopost, spoke about Russian influence in the Western Balkans and the war in Ukraine.

After this war, Fehlinger sees Russia as a loser, while the European Union and the United States, stronger and more united.

Among other things, he told TheGeopost that he sees Putin as a new Milosevic, while calling for the civilized world to stand united against his atrocities.

Below you can find the full interview:

How do you assess the Russian aggression in Ukraine and Russia’s failure in the face of Ukraine? Because as it is publicly known, Putin’s plan to invade Ukraine for 48 hours has failed! 

First of all, it’s a war, it’s a full-scale war against Ukraine and against everything which is important for Europe. It’s not only aggression, it’s genocidal form of a brutal war which Russia is waging, and it’s very good that Kosovo and everybody is united against this terrible action. If it’s failing, I hope so, and the first phase of the campaign of Russia has failed. They have not been able to take Kyiv and their forces have been destroyed around Kyiv, but now it’s a second phase of the war starting and they plan a massive attack on the south-east of the Ukraine and Donbas region and in the area of Carson Melitopol and Mariupol, and that is especially horrendous war crime which Russia is committing. They have over 5000 people already confirmed to be killed in Mariopol. The whole city is shelled and destroyed, it’s outrageous and terrible form of war crimes.

I am personally confident that Russia will be defeated, but we all in NATO, EU and everybody who is in free world has to support Ukraine at this moment, also that they are able to defend and counteroffensive and to win this war now.

What should be the response of the international community, respectively of the EU and NATO, if Russia does not withdraw from the war in Ukraine? 

I think we have to be very strict here, first of all we need to isolate Russia, isolate in the United Nations, isolate also from the G-20, isolate also from the OSCE, that is very important, but also make sure in WTO in all international forums, Russia should no longer be invited and no longer any kind of visit of Mr. Putin and also to be boycotted. It is very important to have a complete energy boycott and a complete trade embargo. The EU has now decided to ban Russian coal and this the first step, but also it needs to be banned gas, oil and uranium and all other substances and trade aspects with the Russian Federation. We have to cut our ties and make very clear, we will not trade with Russia until they have fully withdrawn from the territory of Ukraine, and I call for complete liberation of Ukraine, including Crimea and Donbas.

Do you think that there are similarities between the war in Kosovo and that in Ukraine, respectively the crimes of Serbia and Milosevic in Kosovo and the crimes of Russia and Putin in Ukraine? 

Yes, it is very similar, I think Putin is the new Milosevic, he is exactly repeating the patterns of Milosevic. You can compare the crimes like Srebrenica, Racak and many of the atrocities and genocidal violence which the Serb forces in the 90’s have committed in Bosnia and in Kosovo, it’s exactly the same effort that Russia is now using in Ukraine. It is a terrible parallel, but it is exactly that way and I think the civilized world must stand united against such atrocities, they should never be allowed to happen, and similar as now Kosovo and Bosnia is free, I am confident that also Ukraine will be free and will win this war.

Mr. Gunther, you are known for your strong support for all the countries of the Western Balkans to join the EU and NATO. Tell us a little about how you see the perspective of this process and its challenges, especially now after the Russian aggression in Ukraine! 

The war is terrible, and I am confident and I hope the Ukraine will win it, but it shows also that we have lost a decade, the last decade the EU has not been active enough and now we have the consequences. The peace policy of Mrs. Merkel towards Putin and Vucic has not worked, it was a terrible mistake. We have to support our friends more and we have to make sure when somebody is out of the context of the free world that we must be very clear confronting them. So, I am calling for the NATO alliance of the Balkans, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia to be in the EU very fast, already in the 2024, at the next European elections. These three NATO allies, which are complete in harmony with our European policy, they should be fully in EU, they are ready for that, and they are also mentally in our free world and that is important, we have to support them more. Then, Bosnia and Kosovo must get first of all NATO invitation to join, to be secure and also the EU candidate status, because they need to go to the next step, and also we must be clear that Serbia, especially now after the elections is not ready for the EU membership, so the EU candidate status of Serbia must be frozen.

This is very clear, because they have unfortunately, in the last years moved very closer towards Russia in the field of information, they allow still a lot of this very fake news to be propagated from the Russian side. They have not closed the airspace over Serbia for the Russian aviation, they have not joined the EU sanctions, even Vucic has now called Putin afterwards Putin for cheap energy deals and so on.

This is not acceptable, and they have not joined any of our sanctions against Russia. So what I call is a freezing of the status of Serbia towards the EU and I hope it is a shock which changes the situation in Serbia, because this pro-Russian pivot is unacceptable. And after the freezing of Serbia, we should be very clear that we also support the potential EU candidate status of Ukraine, Moldova and of Georgia, these three pro-western countries and to see how pro-western Ukraine is now. They are really pro-western and pro-European country, and so we all should be united in the EU. But if Serbia is not ready for the changes towards the west again, then Serbia must be isolated.

Recently you visited Belgrade (Serbia) and Pristina (Kosovo), what is your impression of these two countries and do you believe that Serbia should recognize Kosovo’s independence? 

Absolutely, this should have happened a long time ago, I was actually 2 weeks ago, the 24^th of March I was visiting Belgrade, because unfortunately there is a wrong narrative in Belgrade propagated by some nationalist and socialist forces, they say it was a take on Serbia, but on 24th of March 1999, the liberation started as well of Serbia, obviously of Kosovo and Montenegro, but the end of Milosevic was the liberation as well of Serbia, and this is the way I think this has to be seen. I am very critical for some segments of the Serb society, which see themselves as a victim of NATO aggression, this is absolutely wrong, we never wanted to aggress anybody. NATO never wanted to attack, it was the genocidal forces of Milosevic who did all these crimes and they had to be stopped. So they were stopped, and I think we can all be very proud about that one and we should be very clear that we continue to support the pro-Serbian the pro-European elements in Serbia and we should make it very clear.

When it comes to recognition, if you have seen my “YouTube” channel, you have seen that I was at the Republic Square of Belgrade and I called for the Republic of Serbia to recognize the Republic of Kosovo, and this must now happen.

I have published in Austrian media, that the EU should also propose something to Serbia in the case of recognition, I think that the EU should give the EURO as a currency to Serbia in the moment of the recognition of Kosovo. This would be I think very feasible as you have seen, in Montenegro and in Kosovo the EURO is currency. This offer should be in one, the suspension of the candidate status if they continue to work with Russia, but if Serbia returns to the free world and recognizes Kosovo and also joins EU sanctions against Russia in solidarity with Ukraine, then they should also get the currency, the EURO for Serbia and also the promise that Kosovo and Bosnia and Serbia can join the EU together in 7 years, in 2029, and then the Serbs and the Kosovo and the Bosnians will be in a way united in the EU as free independent members states, but they will live freely in the framework of the amazing European Union, the Customs Union the currency, and they will all vote for one common European parliament and there will be peace in Europe for the long term. And I think that is a powerful vision, we should make Serbia this offer, either you stay with Putin’s Russia and decline or you come to us, and you recognize Kosovo, support Ukraine and be a full part as a member state in the EU from 2029 and I think that is the offer Europe should male now.

Do you think that Serbia has deceived the European Union and is continuing the game with two chairs? Do you think the EU should be stricter with Serbia in determining their position? 

Yes, absolutely, because in the last 10 years the EU was very soft on Serbia, then the dialogue, this was the dialogue of the mute to deaf. Serbia did not negotiate in good faith, it was always about postponing, delaying and somehow a simulation of a dialogue. So we should now ask very clearly the question: Serbia, do you want to be with us, with Europe or with Russia? If you are with us in Europe, then you need to recognize Kosovo.

Recently it has been warned that Russia through its structures may try to destabilize the Western Balkans, what is your comment? 

Yes, Russia has a very strict counter and anti-Western Balkan strategy. They have been extremely active in Montenegro, that was a very dangerous situation, in Macedonia as well, but obviously in Serbia they have dominated Serbian politics in the last 15 years. Also in Bosnia, Russia has a strong role unfortunately, and we have in the last 10 years not really been forward looking and we have not made major progress, the only big success we had was Montenegro and North Macedonia NATO membership, and this was really very important. The logical moment now is that Kosovo and Bosnia who are secured by NATO via KFOR and IFOR must also be joining the great alliance, NATO, to be secure from a potential risky confrontation with Serbia and that’s the next step at the moment to counter Russian influence in the Balkans.

Despite Kosovo’s declaration of independence, international recognition and ICJ ruling, UNMIK continues its mission in Kosovo. There have been recent cases where Russian UNMIK officials were declared non grata, because they have used UNMIK for espionage operations. What is your assessment, should the UNMIK mission in Kosovo end? 

First of all, to the recognition, I want first to call the countries in NATO and in the EU to recognize the republic of Kosovo, because I have no patience anymore with Spain exporting its Catalonia issue, Slovakia, Romania, its internal fragilities to be exported, or Greece and Cyprus. Especially for Greece, I really call for recognition very fast at this moment because they are supposedly a big ally of US, they always say that and they tweet it every day and the same also for the Cyprus, I think this country should recognize Kosovo. I call also for Bosnia to recognize Kosovo. For Ukraine especially, this is very important, now they see exactly how this is now and they should be very supportive of Kosovo, because Kosovo is supportive of Ukraine, there is also Moldova and Georgia to come to the point to recognize the republic of Kosovo.

When it comes to UNMIK, I think it is possible to give the UN a strong role here in Kosovo, it is also possible to have a center for peacekeeping operations here in Kosovo. Maybe this is better instead of being anti-UNMIK, to change the mandate and have a new form of a mission in a new kind of agreement with UN here in Kosovo, but the UNMIK mission as it is from the past I think is no longer necessary in that form, but obviously I think because a lot of people who have served in UNMIK have done tremendous good work with their heart with Kosovo people, there should be a kind of consensus to smooth or transform this mission in a new Kosovo support mission, but the current mission I think has to come to an end, because there is no basis for that because the Kosovo Republic is now independent and it needs of course support, assistance, friendship and the membership of the UN, but no longer this form of a mission.

How do you see the future of the European Union, NATO, Russia? 

We will be for the long term in a confrontation with Russia and that is un-avoidable. I hope there will be a fall of Putin, I hope that the Russia will return to the democratic and free world, it was in the democratic and free world to some extent in the 90’s until the KGB and Putin as the instrument has made this Coup d’état with Chechnya war and they have now 20 years dominated Russia. I see the result of this terrible war is more unity of EU and NATO to have a partnership agreement between the EU and the USA and then the new trade agreement a new partnership agreement, and you have seen that the EU and NATO, they basically meet together, the Secretary General of NATO is invited to the EU council and to the ministers. It was the first time that the American President, was participating in the EU heads of state meeting now in March, this is historic sign of unity of the west and they are also very much needed. So the result of this terrible war is that the Ukraine will also join EU and NATO, the Balkans, the pro-Western countries, we will see the future of Serbia, they will join the EU and NATO and we will all be much more united in the west in the free world and we have now to build a cordon sanitaire, an isolation around Russia and its allies like Belarus, Syria or states like Eritrea and isolate them more and more and I think we will be in a kind of second cold war, but same as the first cold war, we will certainly win, because we are economically, strategically, we are based on the will and capacity of all our people and we are very strong as the west, if we are united, and that’s what we are and so we will contain Russia and we will win this second cold war. / TheGeopost /