The clashes between NATO peacekeepers and Serbs in Kosovo`s Mitrovica on 17 March, 2008, when over 100 people were injured and 50 Serbs arrested, again raises a question about the way Serbia is going to follow. According to the national media, when NATO snipers were firing at Serbs in Mitrovica, Boris Tadic was talking on the phone to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Javier Solana, asking both sides to abstain from violence. So the question is whether Serbia will vote for Tadic or support the country’s Radical Party in the forthcoming parliamentary election in May?
Those who support Tadic believe that Serbia will be isolated from the rest of Europe if on May 11 the radical party wins. All the neighboring states have already joined the EU and NATO or are about to do that. The economic cooperation with the EU makes up about 55% of Serbia’s trade turnover. The majority of all banks in Serbia are European. Recently, the country has been witnessing an industrial growth as the West actively invest into Serbian economy, so if Tadic loses the election, the West will again impose sanctions against Serbia and its people may again suffer from NATO aggression.
Tadic supporters also say that Moscow is neither interested in the Radical party’s victory. As they think it will take Russia another 10-15 years to recover, new clashes in the Balkans and support for Serbia in its confrontation with the West will only slow down the process. Tadic is also interested in cooperation with Russia. Serbia handed control of its energy supplies to Russia. Under the agreement, Russia`s state-owned gas giant Gazprom will buy 51% of Belgrade`s NIS oil monopoly and run the “South Stream” gas pipeline through Serbia. (However, on March 17 Serbian papers published a note citing the country`s Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic, who said he was going to revise the deal with Gazprom).
Others, who oppose Tadic`s destructive policy, also have some arguments.
The Serbs are more populous than Albanians, Croatians, Bosnian Muslims and Macedonians, so it can exist as a sovereign state and not depend on the neighbors.
Traditionally, Serbia has had economic cooperation only with European countries, which finally lead to the highest ever trade deficit: 9,5 billion dollars in 2007 (40% more than in 2006). The production rates in Serbia are increasing only thanks to the U.S. companies working there. The “Sartid” metallurgical plant is one of the examples. The companies of the kind transfer the revenue abroad leaving the Serbs with no money. The West is aimed at not reviving Serbia`s industry but at seizing control over the biggest national companies (“Mobilna Telefonija Srbije” and others).
The interest rates set by foreign banks in Serbia are higher then in the West: for example, an interest rate of any western bank for Serbs is 11-12% while in the rest of Europe it is 6-7%. That is how the Western banks rob Serbs blind…
In 2000 Serbia`s foreign debt reached 10 billion dollars. The pro-western experts say by the end of 2008 it will be 35 billion already.
But to impose sanctions against Serbia once again is hardly possible nowadays since Russia will never allow this. Neither new NATO attacks on Serbia are possible as the alliance has been locked in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Unlike practically all his counterparts, Boris Tadic himself has never faced any corruption charges.
Born to a family of a prominent Serbian academician Lubomir Tadic, Boris failed to become as intelligent as his father. Before taking up a political career, he was a teacher in a comprehensive school in Belgrade, so his knowledge of international political tendencies was and remains quite poor.
Tadic looks only in the western direction. According to the classification invented by a well-known Russian logician and sociologist Alexander Zinovyev, Tadic is a typical “zapadoid” (or “Westoid”, which means a person who is overwhelmed with pro-western ideas).
The way Tadic describes Dick Cheney, whose policy lead to the devastation of Afghanistan and Iraq, also characterizes him as incompetent person: “These people (he means Cheney and his allies) are all good-natured and decent… I would not dare to tell them lies…When I had a talk with Mr. Cheney, he demonstrated the keenest interest to learn whether the Serbian people were really eager to join the EU. I assured him the issue was vitally important for us. I was surprised to hear him asking me about the division of labor in Serbia: whether the people knew what they had to do to defend the national interests. I couldn’t answer positively and deceive such an important person. To speak to Cheney means to address the whole America”.
At the same time, Tadic knows that NATO officials are laughing openly at the Serbs in Kosovo. “The incumbent NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer evidently could hardly even understand me when I told him about the events in Kosovo, about the burnt Serbian churches, innocent victims and columns of refugees”. (“Profil” magazine, Belgrade, 2006).
However, Tadic is striving for joining NATO. ‘We need membership in both NATO and the EU”, - he says.
He wants Serbia to “become like Poland”, although 2 million people left Poland after it joined the EU. Poland’s foreign debt is more than 200 billion dollars, and Warsaw continues its anti-Russian policy despite its dependence on the Russian oil and gas supplies.
Speaking in Gdansk on August, 31, 2005, Tadic announced: “Our way into the European future, which has become real for Poland, is clear for Serbia. We are looking forward to joining the EU and NATO”. Well, such a pro-western politician seems to believe that Mr. Solana, who issued an order to attack Serbia, has “good intentions”.
At the same time, Mr. Tadic does not believe in Moscow`s “good intentions”, saying Russia is only pursuing its interests in the Balkans.
If Tadic wins parliamentary elections, within 10-15 years Serbia will no longer exist as a sovereign state. The country’s external debt will reach “Polish” 200 billion dollars, any forms of separatism (in Voevodina and Sandzak) will be supported by the U.S., the central power will control the whole country and the West will finally lay hands on Serbia.
Then even the strong Russia won`t be capable to provide any support to the Serbs.
If Belgrade chooses an alternative way and will agree on an overwhelming cooperation with Russia, within the next few years Serbia will show the rest of Europe how to be a prosperous country independent from Washington’s policy.
Only Russia can help Serbia to achieve stability.
To postpone making a crucial decision on the Russia-Serbia union is impossible.