Draskovic: Serbia must distance itself from Putin, otherwise it will become Balkan Syria

The president of the Movement for Serbian Renewal (SPO) and former head of diplomacy of the FRY, Vuk Draskovic, told N1 that Serbia should distance itself from Russia and Putin, or, as he said, become “Balkan Venezuela”. or “Balkan Syria”. “We have to go to the civilized side of the world and one day Russia will return, when the evil is over, when new people lead Russia and it will return to the civilized side of the world,” Draskovic said. He also says that there is a war going on in Ukraine and that it is not true that it is a “special military operation”. “Then Tolstoy’s book should be called ‘The Great Special Operation and Peace,'” he said.

“Putin declared aggression against Ukraine with the words – that Ukraine is a historic mistake, a false state that should not exist. Prior to Putin’s statement, the propaganda of the KGB, the Serbian-Russian UDB, kept repeating here that BiH is a false state, that Kosovo is a false state, that Montenegro is a historic mistake. These people are not for the Europeanization of the Balkans, they are for the Putinization of the Balkans,” Draskovic said.

Asked why the Balkans are so interesting to the great powers, both east and west, Draskovic said he was talking about a “civilized approach”.

“The West is certainly not the one who wants us to hate each other here, to kill each other again. The West wants us to join that civilized circle of people in Europe. Russia wants the opposite. Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and not that of 2000, but this now, it is in his interest to constantly incite conflicts, hatred in the Balkans, to wait for a favorable moment for any disaster here, for Russia to anchor here, before “all to the Serbian people,” he said.

According to him, that “Putinophile” became aggressive “after October 16, 2014, when Putin visited Belgrade and when Tomislav Nikolic kissed him nine times and organized a military parade for him.”

“However, the most common argument for joining Russia is that the country defends Kosovo and Metohija and is against Kosovo’s independence.”

“People in Serbia are victims of these fundamental untruths that propaganda has produced in almost national cult myths. The fact that Russia is defending Kosovo is untrue. “ says Draskovic.

According to Resolution 1244, Kosovo status talks were held in Vienna in 2006, he said.

“I was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Serbia was represented by Boris Tadic and Vojislav Kostunica. The mediator was special envoy Martti Ahtisaari. He had to adhere to four principles in Vienna with the voice of Russia: first – the non-return of Serbia to Kosovo and Metohija, there is no return to the situation before the adoption of resolution 1244, second – there is no partition of Kosovo, third – no “Kosovo’s union with Albania and the fourth – Albanians must guarantee the maximum rights of the Serbian people and protect the Serbian cultural heritage,” he explained.

He says Russia has voted on all four principles, but at the moment when the Ahtisaari proposal had to be approved, Russia, Draskovic said, “wanted to do trade”.

They said – we support everyone, provided that Abkhazia, Ossetia and Transnistria receive the same status. To the remark that the Russians voted in both the Contact Group and the Security Council, they responded – that was our interest then, this is it now. “Ukraine was not part of the game then”, Draskovic said. /N1/