Serbia, Russia’s Historical Fifth Column in Europe

 

Ethnic and religious kinship between Serbia and Russia gave Russia a political tool for manipulating and exploiting nationalist separatist emotions in the Austrian and Ottoman empires of 19^th century so as to ensure the weakness of these two neighboring empires. This policy led to the first WW in the early decades of the 20^th. WWI ended with the disappearance of those two empires and the appearance of several ethnically and religiously diverse and economically non-viable small states in the Balkans (an occurrence coined in the diplomatic parlance “balkanization”). Who benefitted from this outcome? Not the victorious western European countries, not the small countries emerged from the break-up of the said two empires, not even the truncated two empires. It was not a territorial gain for Russia either, but the fractious landscape created was consistent with the historical foreign policy, divide et impera, since the time of Peter the Great, thus a big achievement for Russia.

Today’s Serbia, although much weakened after the disappearance of Tito’s Yugoslavia, is still holding Damocles’ sword over Bosnia and Kosovo. NATO and EU assign a low priority to this problem among the more immediate and larger ones in Europe. Either because the Western countries do no longer have or believe in historical knowledge or because they over-trust their contemporary economic and military power so much that they belittle small festering issues at their doorstep. One would think that it is wiser to address problems when they are smaller than when they get bigger. The catastrophic consequences of delaying the admittance of Ukraine in NATO or at least in EU for petty reasons are before our eyes every day on TV screens. A delay that must have been caused either by formalities like time required for fulfilling membership requirements -which in fact should be secondary to strategic considerations- or for the politically ill-conceived consideration of not intimidating Russia. Russia does not hesitate to intimidate others. The West never learns its history lessons, for some inexplicable reasons.

Serbia can be stopped from harassing its neighbors by simply admitting Bosnia and Kosovo in the EU and NATO without further delay. The West has nothing to lose but much to gain from this fast track action, because no one, including the powerful West, has control over time ticking for unexpected events to occur. The EU and NATO red-tape for membership, can be suspended for the sake of urgency during this fast-moving troubled times of world affairs.

As regards Kosovo, there is yet a simpler and swifter action that can be taken. It is for Kosovo to declare close strategic and economic union with ethnic and religious kin Albania, which is already member of NATO. Anyway, Kosovo must be aware that it is not an economically and militarily viable state. Such union would not only keep Serbia from meddling in Kosovo but also strengthen both Kosovo and Albania.

Strategically, Serbia, the Russian island-fortress in the midst of the European history’s greatest alliance, can be isolated and neutralized.

January 2023