PARIS - President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia arrived Thursday in Belgrade to commemorate the city's liberation by the Red Army during World War II, in a visit that underlined Moscow's growing attempt to assert its influence in the western Balkans, even as Serbia tries to link itself inextricably to the West without losing Russia's support.
Snipers stood guard on rooftops, and thousands of spectators chanted, 'Putin! Putin!' as Mr. Putin was awarded the Order of the Republic - Serbia's highest honor - by President Tomislav Nikolic at a military parade. It included a procession of 3,000 Serbian soldiers and air acrobatics by Serbian and Russian fighter jets.
As the West and Russia are caught in Cold-War-style tensions over Russia's incursion into Ukraine, Serbia has tried to find a precarious balance, declining to join the West's sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, while vowing that it remains committed to joining a European Union that is seeking to shun Mr. Putin. The American ambassador to Serbia was conspicuously absent from the ceremony.
Belgrade's political contradictions were on display Thursday, along with a pomp and circumstance that Ivo Viskovic, a professor of political science at Belgrade University and former ambassador to Germany, said Belgrade had not witnessed since the heyday of the former Yugoslavia before the death of President Josip Broz Tito.
Addressing Mr. Putin, Mr. Nikolic pledged Serbia's commitment to Russia, its longtime ally, while Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic vowed that Serbia would not sway from its 'European Union path.'
'Serbia will not compromise its morals with any kind of bad behavior towards Russia,' Mr. Nikolic was quoted as saying by B92, a leading Serbian broadcaster, after he and Mr. Putin laid wreaths at a memorial in Belgrade to Soviet soldiers.
In remarks that analysts said appeared calibrated to avoid embarrassing Serbia in front of its Western partners, Mr. Putin focused largely on the Soviet Union's heroic role during World War II.
'To the Soviet Union belongs the key role in defeating fascism,' Mr. Putin was quoted as saying by B92. He added, 'However, we will never divide the victory into ours and other people's, nor will we forget our allies in the anti-Hitler coalition.'
At an earlier joint news conference with Mr. Vucic, however, the issue of Ukraine intervened, and B92 quoted Mr. Putin as saying that, as long as Western sanctions against Russia were in place, countries like Serbia that had strong relations with Russia would have big opportunities.
Mr. Putin is so revered in Serbia that Belgrade changed the date of the commemoration by four days so he could attend before he travels to Milan for a European Union-Asia summit, Serbian officials said. The Serbian news media meticulously reported every detail of the trip; Kurir, a popular tabloid, gushed to its readers about the gold taps and three bars in Mr. Putin's plane as well as the separate plane necessary to transport his specially equipped Mercedes S600.
Andjelka, 65, a pensioner who declined to give her last name, captured the mood of many Serbs when she said: 'This brought me back to the times when my parents were alive, to when Russia and Yugoslavia loved each other. The West is blackmailing us all the time, but we can always rely on Russia and Putin.'
Serbia shares deep cultural and historical ties with Russia, including an Orthodox religion, and regards Russia as one of its staunchest allies. It is also deeply dependent on Russian energy. Under the Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslavia forged close ties with Russia.
When Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, in the face of strong opposition from Belgrade, Russia, which has a veto-wielding seat on the United Nations Security Council, supported Serbia's efforts to deny Kosovo the international legitimacy it craved.
In recent years, however, Serbia has nudged away from the Kremlin and pinned its future on membership in the European Union. But many Serbs are impatient with a long process they complain has entailed big sacrifices and has not improved their lives.
During the visit, Russia and Serbia also signed several economic, commercial and military agreements and conducted talks on a South Stream gas pipeline, which would transport Russian gas across the Black Sea and into the European Union. But with the standoff over Ukraine, the bloc has hardened its opposition to the pipeline, which would bypass Ukraine, and is expected to pass through several European Union countries as well as Serbia.
Kosovo, which has been seeking to repair ties with Serbia, nevertheless wasted little time in criticizing the Putin visit as a sign of Serbia's crude opportunism. 'Organizing an expensive military parade for Putin, at the time when Russia committed several acts of aggression, doesn't bode well for the E.U. integration of our northern neighbor,' said Petrit Selimi, Kosovo's deputy foreign minister.
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, October 16, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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