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Serbian election highlights the west’s fears about Russia
Financial Times ^ | January 19 2007 | Quentin Peel

Posted on 01/20/2007 7:07:57 AM PST by A. Pole

Fears are growing in western European capitals, and even more clearly in Washington, about the increasingly assertive role Russia is playing in international diplomacy.

[...]

It is about Moscow’s involvement in the politics of the former Yugoslavia, and the delicate attempt to broker a deal between Serbia and its disputed former province of Kosovo.

[...]

On the face of it, the elections in Serbia will have little bearing on the international plans for a “supervised independence” for the territory. All the main political parties in Belgrade are opposed to any such move. But the balance of power could still be a critical factor in the willingness of any future government at least to negotiate with the United Nations-appointed mediator, Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president.

The trouble is that before any plan has been published, Mr Putin and his ministers have already made clear they will only back a settlement if it has the support of Belgrade.

[...]

"They are flirting with blocking a Kosovo settlement," a senior American official travelling with Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said this week. "It is hard to say what the Russians will do."

[...]

"To have Russia messing around in Serbia has a 1914 ring to it," he added, referring to the events leading to the outbreak of the first world war.

[...]

There is also European nervousness at evidence of a growing Russian presence in Serbia, not merely on the diplomatic front but also in the Serbian economy

[...]

(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: balkans; christian; dhimmitudescum; guardiansathegate; islam; jihad; kosovo; muslim; pancakeboy; toothlessdhimmi
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1 posted on 01/20/2007 7:07:59 AM PST by A. Pole
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To: ninenot; sittnick; steve50; Hegemony Cricket; Cicero; GarySpFc; Wolfie; ex-snook; FITZ; arete; ...
The trouble is that before any plan has been published, Mr Putin and his ministers have already made clear they will only back a settlement if it has the support of Belgrade.
2 posted on 01/20/2007 7:11:09 AM PST by A. Pole (Serbian proverb: "Bog visoko, a Rusija daleko." [God is high above, and Russia is far away.])
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To: A. Pole

And this is inappropriate somehow because....?


3 posted on 01/20/2007 7:29:08 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin2
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To: A. Pole

Of course the Russian influence in Belgrade is growing, they are the only ones not willing to screw the Serbs in this modern-day Munich-style appeasement of the Jihadists.


4 posted on 01/20/2007 7:30:06 AM PST by FormerLib (Sacrificing our land and our blood cannot buy protection from jihad.-Bishop Artemije of Kosovo)
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

...because this might soil the grand legacy of BJ Clinton's master peace plan in the Balkans!!!

Go Russia, go!


5 posted on 01/20/2007 7:31:02 AM PST by FormerLib (Sacrificing our land and our blood cannot buy protection from jihad.-Bishop Artemije of Kosovo)
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To: A. Pole

This is the first time I've wholeheartedly agreed with Putin in a long time.

Clinton, Blair, and Schoeder, after giving speeches on the New World Order at the NATO anniversary celebrations in Washington, fought that war ON THE WRONG SIDE. They violated all the rules of just war and initiated agression against a sovereign nation, bombed civilian targets, and basically starved and froze the Serbs into submission.

None of this was done with the consent of the UN, but they brought the UN in afterward to cover it up.

Now they want to hand the province of Kosovo over to the Islamic, drug-smuggling thugs in Albania as a reward for their terrorist enterprises.

What the hell is wrong with Bush? Why does he have to tamely consent to everything that clinton screwed up over the course of eight years? Does he expect that if hillary gets into office she will continue any of his policies?

I don't think so. Here's to Russia's Little Brothers, the Serbs, our old allies before clinton turned on them.


6 posted on 01/20/2007 8:07:20 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: A. Pole
[i]But the balance of power could still be a critical factor in the willingness of any future government at least to negotiate with the United Nations-appointed mediator, Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president.[/i]

regardless of the election outcome the willingness of the future gov. to negotiate with UN will be the same: about autonomy yes, about independence (supervised or not) no.
7 posted on 01/20/2007 8:08:29 AM PST by Tamodaleko
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To: A. Pole
The Russians and the Serbs share a common religion, alphabet and national interests. Russia has had an interest in the Balkans since the 19th Century.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

8 posted on 01/20/2007 8:12:30 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: A. Pole

This policy should have been immediatly reputed in Jan 2001 when W. took office and Slick and everybody else responsible for it hanged.


9 posted on 01/20/2007 8:16:55 AM PST by jeddavis
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To: A. Pole

"To have Russia messing around in Serbia has a 1914 ring to it," he added, referring to the events leading to the outbreak of the first world war."

*****Absolutely correct...with the exception of one word, that is supported by historical fact. Substitute the word, "Russia" with "Wall Street and American and International Bankers". This is true for both incidents, International Bankers and industrial Bankers started First World war and we are once again messing around in Serbia restarting the balkans wars once again.

those interested in facts...read for yourself who actually started WWI, and who actually aided in a BIG way the communist revolution to this day......

http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/bolshevik_revolution/index.html

then on to part II....for their next agenda. It's not America, its the "insiders" International Bankers and Industrialist that has links with Illumanati...before any responses....do your research.... A. Pole, you already know.

http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/index.html


10 posted on 01/20/2007 8:34:54 AM PST by tgambill (I would like to comment.....)
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To: goldstategop

Kosovo was under Ottoman rule until the First Balkan War in 1912. After the war, Serbia was hoping to annex what is now northern Albania to get access to the Adriatic Sea, but Austria and Italy were opposed to Serbia having a coastline on the Adriatic. Austria apparently wanted Kosovo to be part of Albania. It was because of support from France and Russia that Serbia got Kosovo then (except for a small portion which went to Montenegro, but later went to Serbia when Tito redrew the borders after WWII).


11 posted on 01/20/2007 8:39:21 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: tgambill

Side note....my "beef" is that our past presidents, if they weren't helping to start the wars, they were mostly lame ducks with the exception of Lincoln, JFK, Einsenhower (spelling), add, Major General Smedely Butler, not a president but intimately involved......in 1933. The International Bankers and Industrialist have a history that is amazing..and their front the Counsel on Foreign Relations and the Royal Institute of International Relations.


18 May 1920 - The Federal Reserve Board held a secret meeting, to plan a depression. Large banks began calling in loans, causing stocks to drop from a high of 138.12 in 1919, to a low of 66.24 in 1921. When the value of government bonds plummeted, they were forced to call in even more loans. When thousands of the banks' customers could not pay their notes, the banks seized their assets. 19 June

19 June 1920 - "What is important is to dwell upon the increasing evidence of the existence of a secret conspiracy, throughout the world, for the destruction of organized government and the letting loose of evil." Christian Science Monitor editorial, June 19th, l920.

1921 - It is also interesting to note that during WWI, one of the families that received a large amount of the profits were the Rockefellers. They were more than glad that the United States entered WWI, and according to sources made about $200,000,000 from that event. [Webster, Nesta, Surrender of an Empire, Constable & Company, London, 1921, p 59.]

1921 - COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS (CFR) created by Rockefellers/ New York, deemed as Illuminati Organization in US. The Council on Foreign Relations is founded by Edward Mandell House, who had been the chief advisor of President Woodrow Wilson.

1921 -1924 - The Australian commonwealth bank which was up to this point the "peoples" bank, manipulates on "the right to draw" Commonwealth notes without gold payment or security to eventually demand and force drawing rights of 31,000,000 pounds.

1921 - Royal Institute for International Affairs created by Rothschilds/ London.


12 posted on 01/20/2007 8:43:26 AM PST by tgambill (I would like to comment.....)
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To: A. Pole

Like it or not Russia is doing Western Europe a favor by preventing Kosovo from becoming part of the so called greater Albania. The Serbs are a more stable Allie than the Albanians would ever dream of being. Serbia is the Israel of the Balkans and a strategic partner the West can not afford to loose in this time of Muslim insanity....


13 posted on 01/20/2007 10:28:03 AM PST by Wraith (To have peace prepare for War.)
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To: Verginius Rufus

It was because of support from France and Russia that Serbia got Kosovo



They were right then and right now. Kosovo belongs to Serbia.


14 posted on 01/20/2007 12:51:05 PM PST by eleni121 ( + En Touto Nika! By this sign conquer! + Constantine the Great))
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To: Verginius Rufus

Well, not.
Kosovo was part of serbia after 1912 1st balkan War, so Serbia went into WWI WITH Kosovo And Vardar Macedonia( as integral parts of Serbia)
Commie Tito actually started separation of Kosovo FROM Serbia giving it authonomz, and later more and more ceeding it from Serbia, up until 1990.


15 posted on 01/20/2007 2:05:25 PM PST by kronos77 (-www.savekosovo.org- and -www.kosovo.net- Save Kosovo from Islam!)
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To: joan; Smartass; zagor-te-nej; Lion in Winter; Honorary Serb; jb6; Incorrigible; DTA; ma bell; ...

16 posted on 01/20/2007 2:06:13 PM PST by kronos77 (-www.savekosovo.org- and -www.kosovo.net- Save Kosovo from Islam!)
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To: A. Pole; Bokababe
B92 News Politics Diplomacy & IR

U.S. pushing for quick Kosovo resolution

20 January 2007 | 16:32 | Source: AP

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government is pushing for a quick resolution on Kosovo's final status following the release of a UN proposal.

The United States is signaling that it will work to prevent Russia from using its veto in the U.N. Security Council to delay imposition of a settlement. Russia insists that any outcome must be acceptable to Serbia.

A special U.N. envoy, Martti Ahtisaari, is expected to recommend some form of independence for Kosovo when he issues a report in coming weeks.

A senior U.S. government official said the White House would like to see the process move quickly to a final settlement and approval by the U.N. Security Council. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried recently told the Voice of America that a consultation period with the Serbs and Kosovars would follow release of the Ahtisaari plan, but he signaled that the U.S. government would not let the negotiations drag on.

"We really can't stay where we are because it's been almost eight years, and the Kosovars and the Serbs both deserve to see this issue resolved so they can get on with their lives and have a future," he said.

U.S. policy long has favored Kosovar independence, although some within the administration of President George W. Bush and in Congress have warned against alienating Serbs and undermining liberal and democratic Serbian politicians.

Pressure has increased on the White House from the new Democratic Congress. Democratic leaders of the committees that deal with foreign policy are strong proponents of independence for the mostly Muslim province.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Joseph Biden, is urging the Bush administration to make the final push for independence with muscular diplomacy.

"In the next few months, adroit diplomacy to secure Kosovo's independence could yield a victory for Muslim democracy, a better future for southeast Europe and validation for the judicious use of American power," Biden wrote in an opinion piece published in London's Financial Times on January 2.

Some Congressional aides say that in the event of a Russian Security Council veto, pressure will grow for the United States and allies to recognize Kosovo directly, outside the U.N. framework.

"The Kosovo independence train has left the station," said Antony Blinken, Biden's staff director, in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

Biden's counterpart in the House of Representatives, Democrat Tom Lantos, also conveyed a sense of urgency on the issue by proposing a resolution on January 5, the second day of the new Congress, that backs Kosovar independence and warns that further delay could lead to instability. The measure was co-sponsored by the top Republican member on Lantos' Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Republican Sen. George Voinovich, also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, who is of Serbian and Slovenian descent, has expressed concern in the past about rushing toward independence. But he said it is in Serbia's interest to eventually let the province go. He remains insistent that any settlement protect Kosovo's minority Serb population and have the support of the Serbian government.

"It is absolutely critical that before the U.N. Security Council decision is finalized, there is infrastructure for enacting the plan and protecting the rights of Kosovo's minority populations," Voinovich said.

"This plan cannot be successful without adequate infrastructure, including funding, troops, international police, international prosecutors, and the help and support of the government of Serbia."

17 posted on 01/20/2007 4:13:10 PM PST by Dragonfly
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To: Dragonfly
Sen. Joseph Biden, is urging the Bush administration to make the final push for independence with muscular diplomacy.

Here he comes again.

18 posted on 01/20/2007 4:19:44 PM PST by A. Pole (General Buck Turgidson: "Mr. President... I'm beginning to smell a big, fat Commie rat.")
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To: Dragonfly

Victory for muslim democracy in Iraq would validate the judicious use of American power too but for some reason Biden's against it.


19 posted on 01/20/2007 4:20:57 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: A. Pole; Hoplite

The sick men of Europe band together, literally. Serb and Russian men all, or the bulk of them, need to go to a health spa, ASAP. Their ain't breeding, and they die at about the same age as men in Glasgow. It isn't a pretty sight. Meanwhile, Russia seeks out losers like itself for moral support. And so it goes.


20 posted on 01/20/2007 4:25:40 PM PST by Torie
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