A Friend from Serbia

In an interview to the Moscow PRAVDA, the former newspaper of the communist party and now a fanatical national-conservative opponent of Russian president Boris Yeltzin, published on February 20th, Milosevic said that "it is a disgrace for Russia" that it is taking part in "the genocidal measures against the Serbian nation". Moscow's response came immediately and was not friendly in the least. "It would be wrong to think that Russia would allow someone to insult it", announced the Russian foreign ministry due to the fact that Milosevic, it was said, "allowed himself an outburst on account of Russia's policy in the Balkans". Probably never since the time of the Cominform (1948) has a Belgrade leadership been reproached in such a sharp way, without any gloves. In PRAVDA Milosevic offered the "national patriotic" opposition in Moscow the interpretation of the causes of Yugoslavia's disintegration which it likes to hear. "Behind all this stands the policy of Germany", he made it known. "The break-up not only of our country but of yours as well is precisely in the interest of the German-Catholic alliance. It is precisely in their interest for blood to be spilt in our country and in yours", said the president and ominously warned that "Germany has started punishing the winners in World War II". An explanation for the fact that the Serbian president, all of a sudden, verbally attacked the authorities in Moscow, with which he sought a "natural alliance" up to now, lies probably in his assessment that Yeltzin's days are numbered and that with this "outburst" he could even, to a certain extent, contribute to his departure. If tensions between the West and Russia are raised once again and if the "cold war" resumes, and also if the regime in Belgrade does not change, Serbia would not be "non-aligned" judging by Milosevic's geo-strategic views, but it would perhaps be the only ally in a "Slavic-Orthodox bloc".