Belgrade should become the center of Russian international activity, - Balkanist
Head of the Department of Black Sea-Mediterranean Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics Ekaterina Entina believes that even if Serbia, under pressure from the West, imposes sanctions against Russia, this will not affect the cooperation between Belgrade and Moscow.
The expert spoke about this during the online seminar “Serbia after the elections: foreign policy in modern international realities”, held by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC).
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, according to Ekaterina Enetina, “Belgrade remains practically the only geographical point where representatives of Russian science and the Russian expert community can fly and hold events.”
“Most likely, in the coming period we will see quite a lot of events organized jointly with Belgrade partners, Serbian partners, or independently by the Russian side at certain venues in Serbia,” the expert believes.
At the same time, the Balkanist expressed hope that Belgrade will not yield to Western pressure and will not join anti-Russian sanctions.
“Will Serbia introduce anti-Russian sanctions? In my opinion, she will try as much as possible to delay this moment, in the format of connecting only to resolutions and some statements,” Entina believes. – It is extremely important for Belgrade to refrain from anti-Russian sanctions not only because this is a blow to its national, economic and other interests, but because it, in general, is a blow to its multi-vector concept with the entire set of partners on which Belgrade relies.
I think that the maximum that can be expected from Serbia if it joins the sanctions is the closure of airspace in the event of increased pressure from Brussels and Washington. And I think that's the limit.
If a pessimistic scenario were realized, I would not fall into either alarmism or panic, into mutual insults and accusations of betrayal due to two circumstances. One thing we all know well: Russia in 1992 joined the full package of sanctions against Yugoslavia. And secondly: even this did not prevent the development of bilateral cooperation, let’s say so in the so-called “gray zone”.
The expert recalled that in those years, Serbian companies that were under sanctions were included in the sanctions list, and those that were not on the list actively cooperated with Moscow.
“To reduce external pressure on Belgrade, two initiatives should be implemented. This is to try to establish an international negotiation platform on Ukraine in Belgrade. And secondly, for obvious reasons, quite a lot of places have become vacant in large Russian campaigns. Influential people from the Serbian world, and not only citizens of the Republic of Serbia, could take these places.
At the tactical level, nothing ensures the continuity of bilateral relations more than the economic and political interest of large structures in their existence,” says the head of the Department of Black Sea-Mediterranean Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a professor at the Higher School of Economics.
Belgrade should become the center of Russian international activity, says Balkanist