Kosovo: right along Putin

"We are told - in Kosovo a special occasion. This is all, and not a special case! .. Unilateral support for the independence of Kosovo is not unmoral and unlawful. Understanding separatism cannot be encouraged."
Vladimir Putind, Kosovo case in a sense is really special, primarily for Europeans. But he became such thanks to the cruel actions of the Serbian fascists and the support of their leaders in Russia starting with Yeltsin.

I watched the development of the Yugoslav tragedy, living in Germany as a political emigrant, and had the opportunity to see true coverage of those events. (Yes, gentlemen - victims of Stalinist -Putin's propaganda, in the democratic countries the media as a whole do not distort reality!) Watched intently, since I had a special attitude towards Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia, firstly, stopped the aggression of Stalinist Russia in Eastern Europe, and secondly, for the first time in the world she tried to create a new type of socialism on the state’s scale on the self-government of labor collectives. This attempt, alas, was unsuccessful - mainly because of the lack of democracy in the country.

After the failure of the attempt to create such a system and death of the charismatic leader of the country, Josip Broz Tito Yugoslavia, nothing fastened, and she began to fall apart. And then in Serbia, Slobodan Miloshevich came to power, who, in order to strengthen his authoritarian power, raised the banner of the Serbian Great Power, tried to forcefully stop the collapse of Yugoslavia. In Slovenia and Croatia, he was given his hands, and he clung to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo Territory. In Bosnia, he began to support local Serbian chauvinists, led by Radovan Karadzhich. They took up the expulsion of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from this patchwork state. They answered with armed resistance. But the detachments of the Bosnian Serbs, who received support from Milosevich, began to prevail. About three years this war lasted. Bosnia lost about 200 thousand civilians in it, many cities, including Sarajevo, were destroyed. About a million Bosnians fled from their homeland to neighboring European countries.

Western leaders all this time tried to persuade the Serbs to calm down. In European society, a wave of indignation of the inaction of the European Union and NATO rose. And under the pressure of these moods, the leaders of NATO countries decided to use force against Serbian fascists - point bombing of their military facilities. Serbian detachments were defeated, and Bosnia occupied by them were liberated.

By the way, on the side of the Serbian nationalists fought a certain number of their like -minded people from Russia. Recently, a video appeared on the Internet, whose hero is none other than Eduard Limonov, who at that time was still a complete national patriot. At first he talks with Karadzhich, and then is allowed by the Serbs to an easel machine gun with an optical sight and, carefully aiming, begins to shell the Bosnian city located under the mountain - probably Sarajevo. On all balconies and windows of the city, blankets and panels are visible, with the help of which the inhabitants were hiding from the aiming fire of the Serbian snipers who shot "all that was moving", including children, women and the elderly.

The defeat of the Bosnian Serbs did not stop Milosevich. He set about Kosovo. First of all, he eliminated the autonomy of the region established by Marshal Tito, and began to suppress the peaceful protests of Kosovarov. Kosovars responded to the partisan struggle, and the Serbian troops began to expel the population of the region to neighboring countries.

In the Bosnian war, Russia, which still retained the democratic spirit, did not interfere, and by the beginning of the war in Kosovo, the authoritarian power of Yeltsin was already established, and he began to support Milosevich. He actually began to pursue the same policy as the Serbian Fuhrer, and for the same purpose - to strengthen his staggering power and divert the attention of Russians from the horrors of the introduced nomenclature -gandic capitalism. To this end, Yeltsin started a “small victorious war” in Chechnya in order to prevent its separation. Having received a rebuff from the Chechens, he began to exterminate the population with the help of non -point bombing and destroy the cities of Chechnya. The number of victims also approached 200 thousand.

But back to Yugoslavia. Political support from Russia inspired the Serbs of Milosevich, and they did not want to listen to the exhortations of Europe and the USA. About a million inhabitants who fled to neighboring, by no means rich countries (Macedonia, Albania) and further to the EU countries were expelled from Kosovo. Already because of this, the leaders of Europe and NATO could not persuade Milosevich for years. And the public of Europe this time was more determined. And NATO aircraft began the bombing of the Serbian armed forces and strategic objects - this time without the sanction of the UN Security Council, in which Russian representatives blocked any serious measures against the Milosevich regime.

The bombardment had a success, Milosevich was forced to actually surrender, led his troops from Kosovo, allowing the NATO armed forces to occupy the Kosovsky Territory.

So, the Kosovsky "special case" is that Europe and the USA do not want to put up with the fact that Serbian troops may reappeared in Kosovo. At any moment, radical nationalists can come to the authorities in Serbia, provoke the conflict of the inhabitants of Serbian enclaves with Kosovars in the Kosovo conflict and hurry to help their compatriots. Other scenarios with the same end are possible. And start all over again! Again, war and blood in the center of Europe.

So contrary to what Putin claims, support for the independence of Kosovo is both moral and legal. Moral - because violence and bloodshed are prevented. Legal - because the right of peoples to self -determination is recorded in the UN Charter, as well as the right of states to territorial integrity. The trouble is that in international law it is still not determined in which cases one must dominate, and in which another should. The reason for this is that the majority of the UN members are still in an uncivilized, medieval state: they put their selfish interests in the first place, they do not value human life, and the right is recognized only in words. The East Timor in a referendum spoke out for independence from Indonesia, and immediately Indonesian troops rushed to smash supporters of self -determination. It would be moral for the democratic countries of the region not to try to protect the population of East Timor? Thank God, taught by the bitter experience of Serbia, for a couple of weeks, under the leadership of Australia, they gathered a united peacekeeping contingent, landed it on the Eastern Timor, stopped the massacre and ensured the independence of the young state.

For a long time, I am sure, the Western countries and the long -suffering Chechen people would have protected if Russia had no huge number of nuclear missiles and other weapons of mass destruction from the Soviet Union, as well as the Stalinists in power, capable of these weapons to launch.

It is also very important to realize that Western countries intend to conduct an interesting social experiment in Kosovo, sending a special mission of 2000 people there. It will include police, customs officers, prosecutors and judges who will arrive in Kosovo from all the EU countries and from the USA. The purpose of the mission is to prevent violations of human rights and control so that political pressure does not appear on the fragile institutions in the region. The EU mission will, in particular, be able to monitor cases of corruption, organized crime and war crimes. Speaking wider, this mission will help Kosovo become a civilized country.

But I will return to the question of the right to self -determination. This right is justified by the consideration that without freedom of exit there can be no freedom at all. A free individual cannot be forcibly kept somewhere. Otherwise, he is no longer a free person, but a slave. This applies, of course, to the peoples. In the civilized world, freedom of exit may not be only two places: from prison and crazy house.

The right to self -determination of peoples marks the withdrawal of mankind from the Middle Ages to a legal, civilized existence. This right is incompatible with the principle "who is strong is right." And Putin's cry: "You cannot encourage separatism!" - This is a voice from the animal Middle Ages.

An example of civilized and democratic use of the right to self -determination is given by the bloodless branch of Slovakia from the Czech Republic or determining the status of the Franco -speaking province of Quebec in Canada through a referendum. It was clear to everyone in the West that if in the last (second) referendum, the majority of the Kvebek population spoke out for the department (the voices were divided almost equally), the province would separate from Canada, and the civilized Canadians would not bombard Montreal and suppress the “separatists” by military force. In the same way, Northern Ireland would separate from the UK, and the Basque Country from Spain, if the majority of the population had acted there for the department.

The Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes the possibility of joining other peoples to Russia, but there is no right to exit. A typical case for an imperialist power dreaming of expanding their possessions. If, for example, Belarus would like to (suddenly!) To join Russia, then we ask for mercy! And if, having joined, I wanted to leave later (fix the mistake), then hello: "Territorial integrity is inviolable!"

The right to protect territorial integrity should dominate, obviously, only if there is a desire to grab a piece of your state. As now, for example, this does the Russian government, de facto taking Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia, and Moldova - Transnistria.

Prior to the start of the conflict, Abkhazia made up only 18% of the population of Abkhazia (according to the 1989 census). The Abkhazians would have the right to separate only with the territory on which they lived compactly and made up the majority among its population. Let me also remind you that Abkhazia from Georgia with the military assistance of Russia and the Legion of Volunteers from the North Caucasus under the command of Shamil Basayev was "liberated". This legion was involved in Abkhazia again by Russian special services.

There is no right to separate the Transnistria. Most Russian -speaking residents moved there after the war on a set to work on the industry created there and lived in Transnistria to have too little time to have the right to consider its territory their territory.

Ossetians in South Ossetia, it would seem, have the right to self -determination, as they have long and compactly live in the region. But if it were not for one “little but”: they, like Abkhazov and residents of Transnistria, push the Russian authorities to “self -determination”.

And here we really are dealing with "special cases" - with violation (from Russia) of the territorial integrity of neighboring countries, under the mask of supporting the self -determination of national minorities in these countries. "Separatism cannot be encouraged!" - Putin screams, using separatism in Georgia and Moldova to blackmail the West.

Well, as for Kosovo, this edge is an excellent remedy for the Kremlin to keep Europe. The Kremlin understands well that if Kosovo remained in Serbia, then it would be a source of constant headache for Europeans and Americans, a source of constant violation of stability in Europe. Following the “late” Yeltsin, Putin goes along the old path of Soviet foreign policy: in every possible way to pack America and Europe and represent them with the enemies of Russia in order to distract the attention of his people from the true causes of his poor position.

And the fact that now the EU and NATO ignored the tremendous pressure of Moscow and supported the branch of Kosovo was a serious defeat of Putin’s anti -Western policy and his desire to portray himself to be one of the leading leaders of the world. Putin was indicated to his true place.

Against the background of this event, the words of the chief candidate for the post of US President John McCain are significant: "I do not think that the Cold War will flare up again. Russia has no means or opportunities to compete with the United States." This is the McCain who previously stated that he, like Bush, looked into Putin's eyes, but "he saw nothing but three letters in them: K.G.B!"

Putin’s defeat in Kosovo can be a turning point in the next great -power period in the history of the Russian state.