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In recent days, Western leaders have watched with growing alarm as Serbia’s hard-line prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, who helped lead the revolution that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, has replicated the nationalist talk of the late dictator, who used Serbs’ outrage that their ancestral heartland was dominated by Muslim Albanians to come to power in Serbia.
“As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia,” Mr. Kostunica told the crowd in Belgrade. “We’re not alone in our fight. President Putin is with us,” he said of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
-- BOSTJAN VIDEMSEK and DAN BILEFSKY for The New York Times
In other big news this week, the American embassy in Belgrade was set on fire by Serbians in protest of our backiing of Kosovo's newly declared independence. The article suggests that this may be more about hard-right huffing and puffing than a true crisis, as moderate and younger Serbians are more interested in becoming part of the European Union rather than the status of Kosovo.
No less critically, it is also suggested that the Russians are not likely to step in big to squash Kosovo independence, but there may be more reason to worry. Recently, the Russians made a splash in the news when their fighter pilots buzzed our military ships. It was argued that the petro-dollar rich Russians under Putin are interested in showing off their status and power. Might they not choose the Kosovo issue as an opportunity to show up the Americans, as we are a bit over-extended to take on a full military challenge.
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Christopher Hitchens on some Kosovo hisotry
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In recent days, Western leaders have watched with growing alarm as Serbia’s hard-line prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, who helped lead the revolution that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, has replicated the nationalist talk of the late dictator, who used Serbs’ outrage that their ancestral heartland was dominated by Muslim Albanians to come to power in Serbia.
“As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia,” Mr. Kostunica told the crowd in Belgrade. “We’re not alone in our fight. President Putin is with us,” he said of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
-- BOSTJAN VIDEMSEK and DAN BILEFSKY for The New York Times
In other big news this week, the American embassy in Belgrade was set on fire by Serbians in protest of our backiing of Kosovo's newly declared independence. The article suggests that this may be more about hard-right huffing and puffing than a true crisis, as moderate and younger Serbians are more interested in becoming part of the European Union rather than the status of Kosovo.
No less critically, it is also suggested that the Russians are not likely to step in big to squash Kosovo independence, but there may be more reason to worry. Recently, the Russians made a splash in the news when their fighter pilots buzzed our military ships. It was argued that the petro-dollar rich Russians under Putin are interested in showing off their status and power. Might they not choose the Kosovo issue as an opportunity to show up the Americans, as we are a bit over-extended to take on a full military challenge.
___ ___ ___
Christopher Hitchens on some Kosovo hisotry
