Echoes of 1878

The Balkans Game, Then and Now
by Nebojsa Malic, July 20, 2012

"The Balkans of today is a product of Imperial intervention, created and maintained by force, deception and propaganda. Those who served Empire’s purposes – e.g. Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Albanians or the Bosnian Muslims – feel they should have gained more in the bargain. The Serbs, who lost out at every turn, aren’t willing to concede any more. None are happy with the status quo. Yet the Empire persists in efforts to make it final."

Punk Band Feels Wrath of a Sterner Kremlin

MOSCOW — When four young women in balaclavas performed a crude anti-Putin song on the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February, it seemed like just one more episode in a season of audacious, absurdist and occasionally offensive protest.

Instead, the case of the young punk rockers, whose group is called Pussy Riot, is becoming a bellwether event in the Russian capital, signaling an end to the chilly tolerance the Kremlin displayed in response to the winter’s large demonstrations.

The three women arrested after the performance have been held in custody for more than four months, a term that was extended on Friday by six months, through next January. They could be sent to prison for seven years.

Preliminary hearings in the case offered some of the most striking courtroom images since the trial of Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, which took place in the same building. While that case tested Russians’ feelings toward a billionaire businessman, this one picks as its targets slender young women with hooded sweatshirts and Twitter accounts — avatars of the protest movement itself.
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The government picked a ripe opportunity to crack down, since many Russians found the cathedral performance offensive. It took months for the case to provoke support for the women, even in the opposition-minded city of Moscow. But the balance seemed to shift last month, when a roster of famous artists and musicians, including some vocal supporters of Mr. Putin, signed a petition contending that the case “compromises the Russian judicial system and undermines trust in the authorities.”

Serb leaders from northern Kosovo send open letter to Ban

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Heads of the four north Kosovo municipalities sent on Thursday an open letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ahead of his tour of the region.

In it, they underlined that the entire Serb community and the four Serb municipalities in the northern part of the province are at serious risk, and that in the process of finding a solution for the Kosovo issue, the UN and UN SC Resolution 1244 must not be circumvented.

Taking into account numerous killings, incidents and pressures, the security situation in Kosovo and Metohija gives a cause for concern, the letter reads, adding that the lives, human rights and freedoms of members of the Serb ethnic community are at particular risk.

Underscoring that in the last 13 years, more than a thousand Serbs were killed, while tens of thousands Serb houses and apartments are still usurped, or were burnt down or demolished, four municipal presidents claim that several hundred thousand Albanians still possess arms, and that they have not been disarmed as was stipulated in UN SC Resolution 1244.

“The fact that more than a thousand (ethnic) Albanians, who committed murders and serous crimes against Serbs, have the full freedom of movement and take part in the political life, as they have not been prosecuted, is yet another cause for concern,” the letter reads.
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Together with Albanian leaders from Priština, certain international actors and power centers intend to the complete the project of Kosovo's independence by using force, the letter adds.

Inquiry Seeks Accomplices of Bomber in Bulgaria

BURGAS, Bulgaria — Police officers fanned out across the tranquil beach towns here on the Black Sea on Friday, searching for clues to the identity of the bomber who blew up a bus filled with Israeli tourists on Wednesday, focusing new attention on his possible accomplice or accomplices.

Bulgaria’s interior minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, said at a news conference Friday that investigators had determined that the suicide bomber, who died along with five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver, was a foreigner. He later told state television that the attacker used nearly seven pounds of TNT to build his bomb.

“He couldn’t have been alone, a person alone in an unknown country,” said a senior Bulgarian official familiar with the investigation. “We believe it took at least a week to organize.”
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Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israeli police, said a team of eight forensics officers had spent about 12 hours at the site in Burgas. They returned late Thursday night with “a lot of evidence,” Mr. Rosenfeld said, which they are giving to Israeli and other security agencies.

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry said in a statement that experts from France, the United States and Switzerland working for Interpol were expected to arrive here on Friday. At the news conference in Burgas on Friday, Mr. Tsvetanov said investigators would have to sift through “more than 100 bags” of evidence gathered from the crime scene to determine the full picture of the attack before details could be made public. The investigation is painstaking work, he said, noting that the remains of the bomber were dispersed “in a 50-60-meter perimeter,” or up to nearly 200 feet.

The intensity of the investigation reflected not only the severity of the crime, but its international significance. Israel immediately blamed Iran and its surrogate, Hezbollah, a charge Iran denied. American officials speaking on the condition of anonymity identified the suicide bomber as a member of a Hezbollah cell operating in Bulgaria.

Finland Rejects Talk of Euro Exit After Backing Spain Rescue

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen dismissed speculation his government is considering dropping the euro should the debt crisis deepen after the Nordic nation’s parliament agreed to back a Spanish bank bailout.

“We will not and do not consider exiting the euro,” the premier said today in an interview in Helsinki. “We want to be at the heart of European development. A stronger euro, a better euro is the only, and reasonable, thing for Finland.”

Finland’s demand that bailouts come with strict terms such as austerity and burden sharing, coupled with Katainen’s rejection of common bonds, has prompted economists including Nouriel Roubini to suggest the nation may ultimately quit the euro in protest.
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Finland, which saw the anti-bailout party the “The Finns” become the third-biggest in elections in 2011, also demanded collateral to back a second bailout for Greece last year. It was not an easy decision to back Spain, Katainen said.

“It was a necessary decision to take, even though it’s very hard,” he said. “It’s unpopular, but we have to take responsible moves and steps because the economic situation is so challenging.”

Turkey: Syria Crisis Causes Russian Relations to Suffer

Although Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan brought his energy minister along on a one-day visit July 18 to Moscow, it’s safe to assume that rather than oil and gas prices, the question of how to resolve the crisis in Syria dominated the discussion between Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

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“I think that the Syria crisis – in conjunction with other issues such as Cyprus, NATO missile defense and pipeline politics, all of which put Turkey against Russia – is going to erode substantially the amity between the two countries,” added Blank. [Editor’s Note: Blank contributes occasional commentaries to EurasiaNet].

Just a few months ago, many Turks had good reason to believe their country and Russia were heading toward a golden age in their relations, which had for decades been dominated by the divisions of the Cold War. As one overly optimistic Turkish paper described it only this past January, Turkey was “now a strategic partner of Moscow.”

Business between the two counties has boomed in the last decade, with Russia now representing Turkey’s largest trade partner. Between 2001 and 2011, Turkish exports to Russia grew 548 percent, from $0.9 billion to $5.9 billion, while Russian exports to Turkey – mostly gas and oil – increased almost 600 percent, rising from $3.4 billion to $23.9 billion.
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“There was always the hope in Moscow that they could somehow woo Turkey and exploit the rift between Turkey and the United States and the EU. I think Moscow was pretty shocked when Turkey came on board in Libya,” says Fiona Hill, an expert on Russia at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

Indeed, since the NATO-led operation in Libya last year, Turkey’s ties with the Atlantic Alliance – as well as with Washington – have deepened. Ankara’s role in NATO has become more prominent, particularly with regards to the deteriorating situation in Syria. Like it or not, Ankara may find that it and Moscow are again standing on opposite sides of what should be familiar ideological and geopolitical fault-lines.

Shots fired as Russia detains Chinese fishing ships

(CNN) -- The Russian coast guard seized two Chinese vessels and detained 36 fishermen Tuesday after they were allegedly found fishing in Russian-controlled waters in the Sea of Japan, according to state media

Warning shots were fired at one vessel during a three-hour pursuit by Russian Coast Guard, which eventually rammed the vessel and soldiers fired directly on the ship when sailors resisted being boarded, according to Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
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An editorial in China's People's Daily condemned the firing on the vessel, calling the move "reckless."

"In 1983, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 civilian airliner. Now Russia, for at least the second time, has fired on a Chinese civilian ship. Such conduct will stay in the memory of people in Northeast Asia," the editorial said. "The aggressive behavior by some Russians at the grass-roots level not only harms Chinese confidence in fostering a long-term friendship with Russia, but also provides excuses for forces seeking to undermine China-Russia ties."