The Prospect of Western Europe Collapsing Like Eastern Europe

Soviet disintegration was perceived as unthinkable in 1985 and declared to have been inevitable in 1995. This leap from the ‘unthinkable’ to the ‘inevitable’ makes it a useful footnote to the current discussions on the future of Europe.

“In 1992, the world woke up without the Soviet Union on the map. One of the world’s two superpowers had collapsed without a war, invasion or any other catastrophic development. Although the Soviets had been in irreversible decline since the 1970s nothing had predetermined their collapse at the end of the 20th century.

“In 1985, 1986 and even in 1989 the disintegration of the Soviet Union was as unconceivable for the analysts of the day as the prospect of EU disintegration is for today’s experts. The Soviet empire was too big to fail, too stable to collapse, and had already survived too much turbulence.

“But what a difference a decade can make. What was perceived as unthinkable in 1985 was declared to have been inevitable in 1995. And it is exactly this twist of fate, this leap from the ‘unthinkable’ to the ‘inevitable’, that makes the experience of Soviet disintegration a useful footnote to the current discussions on the European crisis and the choices that European leaders face.
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“The latest Future of Europe survey, funded by the European Commission and published in April this year, demonstrates that while the majority of Europeans agree that the EU is a good place to live, their confidence in the economic performance of the Union and its capacity to play a major role in global politics has declined. More than six out of ten Europeans are convinced that the lives of those who are children today will be more difficult than the lives of people of their own generation.

“More troubling, almost 90 per cent of Europeans see a big gap between what the public wants and what their governments do. Only a third of Europeans feel that their vote counts in the EU and only 18 percent of Italians and 15 percent of Greeks feel that their vote counts even in their own countries.

“So, how unthinkable is disintegration? Is it not true that the survival of the EU will depend on the ability of leaders to manage the political, economic and psychological factors that were in play as the Soviet Union collapsed?
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“The EU is the most sophisticated political puzzle that history has known. Walter Bagehot observes that “the best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government.” So, the mass of mankind understands it. The EU, by contrast, is an unintelligible government that the mass of Europeans cannot understand.

Documents tarnish Montenegro's EU bid

An investigation by the BBC and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has uncovered documents which cast serious doubt on plans for the tiny Balkan nation of Montenegro to join the European Union.

Montenegro is an official candidate to join the EU and accession talks begin next month. This is despite concerns about allegations of political and financial corruption, which have led to the country being described as a "mafia state" - a claim which is forcibly rejected by the Montenegrin government.

The country has no currency of its own and has already unilaterally adopted the euro, despite concerns from Brussels. It is expected to be in the next batch of nations to join the EU after neighbouring Croatia becomes a member next year.

Montenegro's former Prime Minister, Milo Djukanovic, who is still president of the country's ruling party, was investigated by the Italian anti-mafia unit and faced charges over a billion-dollar cigarette smuggling operation based in Montenegro. Those charges were eventually dropped in 2009. As head of state, Mr Djukanovic had diplomatic immunity.

Now documents seen by the BBC raise further concerns about the man described as the "father of the Montenegrin nation".

An audit by accountants Price Waterhouse, carried out in 2010, raised questions about the running of the country's Prva Banka, or "First Bank", which is controlled by the Djukanovic family. The audit suggests that most of the money deposited at the bank came from public funds, while two thirds of the loans it made went to the Djukanovics and their close associates.
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Last week the European Commission gave the go-ahead for accession talks to proceed next month. But it warned: "Corruption is still an issue of serious concern."

It said it would continue to monitor the country's progress as it approached accession.

The accession of the Balkan countries remains a key priority for those in charge of European expansion, and Prime Minister Luksic is hoping the talks will allow him to show the country is changing for the better. But for the government's critics, there first needs to be accountability for the alleged crimes and misdemeanours of Mr Djukanovic's two decades in power.

Serb, Albanian Diaspora Get Varying Levels Of Support

May 27, 2012 By Lily Lynch and Linda Karadaku

"Along with broad cultural differences, Serb and Albanian members of the diaspora community find themselves in generally different predicaments if an emergency strikes hundreds or thousands of kilometers from home."

Read article.

Veterans Who Threw Away Medals At NATO Summit Mark Memorial Day

CHICAGO (CBS) – Veterans who returned their medals to NATO just over a week ago gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at on the Chicago River on Monday, to talk about their feelings on Memorial Day.

They are men and women who have been to war, but are now waging their own fight against war.

Sabrina Waller, who served in the Kosovo conflict in 1999, threw her medals back last week – as anti-NATO demonstrators marched near McCormick Place during the NATO Summit.
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Waller was joined by other members of the group Iraq Veterans Against The War. They also stood with members the group Vietnam Veterans Against The War, who held up a banner reading “Honor The Warrior – Not The War.”

The two groups called for immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, rather than waiting until the end of 2014, as the Obama administration plans.

Push Comes to Shove, and Punch, in Ukraine Parliament

MOSCOW — What began as a legislative debate over Ukraine’s official language policy escalated into a fist-swinging, clothes-ripping brawl between screaming, sweaty lawmakers that reverberated around the Internet on Friday, embellishing the country’s standing in the pantheon of parliamentary punchfests that are captured on camera.

In what the BBC called the “Rumble in the Rada,” parliamentarians tumbled over their desks in the parliamentary chamber in Kiev, the capital, on Thursday night, trading blows, tearing shirts and choking one another as reporters and spectators in the balconies whistled and cheered. One deputy, thrown headfirst into a chair, turned and stumbled back into the melee. Another was flipped over a banister, feet flailing.

The 450-deputy Verkhovna Rada, as Parliament is called in Ukraine, was debating a measure that would elevate the status of Russian to a second language, equal to Ukrainian, in about half the regions of the country, including Kiev. The proposal’s passionate advocates and foes reflect the deep political divisions in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic where some regions harbor deep-seated resentment of Russians.

Serbian tells Putin he will not trade Kosovo for EU

(Reuters) - Serbia is on a "long and uncertain" road to joining the European Union but will not give up its claim to Kosovo for the sake of membership, President-elect Tomislav Nikolic told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.
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"We see Serbia as our spiritual brothers," said Putin, who met Nikolic on the sidelines of a congress of the dominant United Russia party just outside the Kremlin.

Nikolic told Putin that "Serbia is a partner of Russia in the Balkans" and said he would protect the interests of Serbia and Russia. But Nikolic also offered further assurance that he wants Serbia to join the EU.

"Serbia is on the road to the EU. It is a long and uncertain road. We will order our country according to the rules that exist in the EU," Nikolic told Putin, according to Russian news agency Itar-Tass and Serbia's Tanjug.

He added that he has "not heard there exists the condition that Serbia should recognise Kosovo. We cannot do that, even if it meant breaking off negotiations at that very moment."
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Putin has sought to increase economic ties with Serbia. He told Nikolic that Russia was "ready" to provide an $800 million infrastructure improvement loan that has long been under negotiation, but did not say when it might be finalized.

Medvedev Warns of ‘Full-Blown Wars’

Military intervention in the sovereign affairs of other states may lead to outright war, including nuclear war, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

“The introduction of all sorts of collective sanctions bypassing international institutions does not improve the situation in the world while reckless military operations in foreign states usually end up with radicals coming to power,” he told an international legal forum in St. Petersburg.

“At some point such actions, which undermine state sovereignty, may well end in a full-blown regional war and even - I’m not trying to spook anyone - the use of nuclear weapons,” he said.