With no closure to the issue of the US sanctions on the Russian-owned Oil Industry of Serbia, the local media and the commentariat remain unhinged as ever.
Speaking to N1, Andrej Ivanji, journalist and editor at the weekly Vreme, said, “The decision on the future of Serbia’s Oil Industry (NIS) will be a political decision made in the Kremlin, where, within the empire of Gazprom and Gazprom Neft, the share of NIS is insignificant“.
Yes, just sit tight, Serbia, and leave your fate in Russia’s capable hands.
Saying “goodbye to Putin” could cost the government dearly — and will certainly cost Serbia, Ivanji argues.
“There will inevitably be an increase in fuel prices, and with that, in this spectacularly expensive Serbia, everything else will have to become more expensive. Prices will rise again. And, of course, this government now has a problem with its carefully cultivated pro-Russian voter base. Now it must shift its course against Russia,” he said.
Yeah, sure, the fact that there are no oil imports due to sanctions, so there is no fuel for the Serbian refinery to refine, thus influencing the prices, somehow does not seem to compute with Mr. Ivanji.
“What I read in Vucic’s statements is a solid fear of Moscow’s reaction. What does Moscow know? What do they have in their pocket? What deals have been made? How much money is parked there? And, in the end, to put it simply, I, too, would be afraid of Putin. I certainly wouldn’t feel at ease,” concludes Ivanji.
Ab-so-lu-telly. We all must cower in fear before Vladimir Putin, the Supreme Lord of the Sortir.
Mind you, this person is from the opposition media here. Go figure – Serbia has two opposed sets of manipulators, the government and the people buzzing around the student movement, scaring people into thinking that showing Russia the door is somehow dangerous and expensive.
One of the primary reasons for the deterioration of Serbian political discourse is the media landscape. To illustrate this point – imagine it is a perfectly normal Sunday afternoon, with your family gathered around the TV, you’re watching the most popular panel show in the country called “Ćirilica” (Cyrillic), chyron reads “World bankers are ready to set Europe on fire to get a cheap labor force”, and the host is the one and only Milomir Marić (pictured).
Yeah.
The callous transactional nature of the carefully cultivated pro-Russian voter base is displayed by the criticism of the SRCE opposition party, which in their press release following the vote at the UN General Assembly on the resolution of returning the Ukrainian children taken from their homes by the Russian invaders, focuses on criticising how the absence of the Serbian delegation will affect international and business relations of Serbia.
“…running away from the vote is only a symbolic confirmation of the state of foreign policy that has lost its direction and whose only goal was and remains the personal promotion of the head of state, the abuse of the state and the SNS remaining in power at any cost, and which in reality led us to a blockade in relations with our main partners, such as the EU (delayed negotiations), the USA (NIS sanctions) and Russia (the issue of energy supplies and others).”
How very noble. Never mind the fact that Russians kidnap children and take them to North Korea, oh no! The only thing that matters is how much fuel Serbia can get or lose by voting or not voting.
This Reddit thread, where the allegations of Russian organized deportations of Ukrainian kids are being dismissed as anti-Russian propaganda, is quite telling.
Sweden will phase out development aid to five countries in the coming years and use the money to increase support for Ukraine, the government said on Friday.
The Nordic country plans to phase out aid to Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Liberia, and Bolivia, Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Benjamin Dousa said.
Sweden has already cut some of the financial aid to Serbia due to corruption.
Go, Sweden. Maybe Russia can now pick up the tab, we did support their manipulative vote at the UN on combating imaginary “Nazism”, because everyone who Russian nationalists don’t like immediately gets branded as a Nazi.
And what of the wonderful student protesters? They must be shocked and appalled by Russian war crimes? Nope, they’re still holding their giant anti-corruption crosses, waving the plenum-approved democratic icons and tolerant flags of territorial pretensions against neighboring countries.
The same iconography was displayed on Sunday, 7 December, a sizeable group of residents from the settlements of Stanovo and Višnjak gathered around houses in parts of Kragujevac, central Serbia, where Nepalese workers are accommodated. The demonstrators shouted “monkeys” and hurled themselves at garden fences.
No, it is not a migrant asylum. These are foreign workers employed by the local private and public companies, as well as multinationals operating in Serbia.
Serbian media, politicians, and common folk alike constantly evoke how we were supposedly painted as “savages” by the Western MSM back in the 1990s during the Yugoslav wars, and that the supposed Western negative stereotypes against the Serbs still persist, and how all foreign criticism of Serbia is unfounded, malicious, and unjust. Well, we sure as heck don’t do much to beat such allegations.
Instead, the narcissistic ideas persist. There are two completely unfounded notions in Serbia when it comes to the EU membership:
◾ It is a completely geopolitical decision, so no one has to commit to any reforms. If you smooch up to important actors, you’re in.
◾ Serbia can’t be allowed to be left behind, because our national pride commands that we are superior to all other Balkan countries, and it’s already “unfair” that Romania and Bulgaria were admitted, even though, in Serbian minds, they are “undeveloped” compared to Serbia, The Leader of the Region.
So there isn’t much of a surprise when the government keeps floating the idea of referendums to choose between the EU and the Serbian World.
“The change of national policy must be the position of the majority of the nation, and the majority is counted in a binding referendum with a clear question about our common future. No one has ever asked the citizens of Serbia whether they see their future in the eternal fulfillment of the moving goals of the uncertain and increasingly long road to the EU or in an independent policy that necessarily leads to different integrations and above all to unification. No one asked us, but that was in that world that President Milosevic did not understand above water, this is another world, and if we understand, we would have to be asked – the EU or the Serbian world,” Aleksandar Vulin wrote for Vecernje Novosti, Danas reports.
As if somehow the European Union would miss out if it didn’t accept the most polluted country in Europe into its fold.
Serbianism 