Monday, June 14, 1999.

Political union with Russia

Dmitri, yahoo.com

    Q: Here in Russia, we were a little surprised by the info about the Yugoslav proposal of joining the Russia-Belarus union. You know, we the Russians hate the war, and we share with you the srby the same ethnic origin and the same major religion. So, the Yugoslav proposal have had a lot of supporters here. But, was it really serious? Does it represent the honest will of a people or that of a bloody dictator? Russia is a young democracy (it's indeed a democracy!), however, we strongly reject the 'democratic' NATO bombing. Then, should we await for the day when we could build together a new democratic union?

    The Yugoslav proposal on joining Russia-Belarus union was not, as you put it, serious. The parliament decided upon this issue, but our parliament does not have the full support of people since almost 50% of the population didn't vote on last elections. Actually, I think that it was just a quick decision of "a bloody dictator" because at that moment he thought it serves his (not people's) interests. And I must state that I don't see a future for Serbia in that union because of two reasons:

    - there are no connections between the Russia or Belarus and Serbia

    - regime in Belarus is very similar to the one we have here and a union between such dictators would only make them stronger.

    Q: Your opinion about the role of the Russian peacekeeper forces in the peace plan?

    The regime uses the Russian peacekeeper forces to be able to say on television that the forces in Kosovo are not NATO but UN, i.e. we didn't loose the war but actually we won it because the problem is now in the hands of the UN and not NATO.

    The agreement signed on Friday (NATO/Russia) anticipates just 3000 Russian soldiers and no sector under Russian control. Therefore, I don't think that the presence of the Russian soldiers would be that significant, having in mind that they would be under NATO command. It is unfortunate but it seems that the Russians will be used mostly by our government to present the situation in Kosovo as victory and being under UN control instead of the real image: defeat and NATO troops in Kosovo.