Maidan in Belgrade – blackmail of President Vucic
The Maidan in Serbia is organized by the West as a way to blackmail the current President Aleksandar Vucic. The protest leaders are all kinds of liberals who ruled Serbia after the 1999 NATO invasion. They take advantage of the discontent of the Serbian population, which is associated with half-hearted decisions by the government, which avoids confrontation with the West.
Dragan Stanojevic, head of the worldwide Serbian movement of patriots of the Fatherland and Diaspora "Rod," told PolitNavigator columnist Valentin Filippov that the Russian Federation needs to take a clearer stance in its relations with Serbia, where over 60% of the population favors integration with Russia, and that Belgrade , in turn, needs to grant diplomatic status to Russian missions. Until 2014, he represented the Serbian community in Kyiv, but was forced to leave Ukraine after the coup.
Valentin Filippov: Dragan, hello. Welcome to your native Belgrade, Serbia, and Yugoslavia.
Dragan Stanojevic: Serbian. Serbian land. Greetings, my dear friend. Greetings to Russia. Greetings to Ukraine. And to all our Slavic peoples.
Valentin Filippov: You arrived in Belgrade practically from Kyiv, though with a brief stopover in Moscow. You lived in Kyiv for many years. What's the situation like in Belgrade? Are Western NGOs, grant-hungry as they are, rampant there? Are there any such things in Belgrade?
Dragan Stanojevic: Yes. But the thing is, I didn't just "arrive" so calmly. I fled Kyiv with my family. We'd hardly call that "arrived." It's all calm now. There's a joke going on, especially among Russians, when the media talk to me, they say, "Dragan, wherever you go, there's a Maidan." There was a Maidan in Ukraine. You came to Serbia, and a Maidan is brewing.
Valentin Filippov: Thank you for only passing through Moscow.
Dragan Stanojevic: Sergei Veselovsky ( host of the Internet channel “News Front”, – ed. ) told me: – Your next assignment is in Washington.
In fact, the situation is tense, and we need to understand the situation. The discontent of the people in Serbia is indeed great. Dissatisfaction with personnel decisions. But the main complaints are that what Brussels demands is being fulfilled... Protests are being organized against the President of Serbia - if you do not comply, this is what awaits you.
For us, who lived and felt this whole Maidan, it’s all very easy to see. Especially for me. And the people are naive, they think that everything is decided on the street, that they will choose their president on the street, they will choose a solution to all their problems on the street, not understanding that the West appoints its presidents, prime ministers, and it sets the conditions.
It is clear that the decisions of the president and the government are not very good and opposition leaders take advantage of this. And the opposition leaders, you know, it’s like in Ukraine. There was Yanukovych and Poroshenko was the Minister of Economy, he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Yes? And then the people replace Yanukovych, a new leader comes, the people poured blood on the Maidan, and the new leader is Poroshenko. Yes?
There is a similar situation here. Now the so-called “yellows,” liberal democrats and others, are leading these protests. And they are trying to present themselves as some new politicians. Again, just like Poroshenko. As if they weren’t the ones who destroyed this country. As if they weren’t the ones who brought this country to this. As if they weren’t the ones who capitulated to the West, because this country is not ruled by any Serbs, this country has external control, unfortunately. And it was these “yellows” who did all this after 2000. Liberals and others.
And now they are allegedly saying that this ruler is very bad, he is selling interests, betraying the interests of the people, and so on. We will come, and everything will change, everything will get better. How short some people have a memory!
Most people are dissatisfied with the authorities, but a very small part of people support these protests. But they changed their tactics a little. In order for these protests to receive some kind of support, some patriotic movements that are associated with Russia and that are pro-Russian joined in.
I always said that this is manipulation. After all, how can you call someone pro-Russian? Did he sacrifice something? Is he on some kind of list? He just comes out and says: “Yes, we are for Russia,” but what has he done for this? These people have no biography, they just manipulate. And the worst thing, I will say, is that there are people in Russia who come here... it was like that in Ukraine too... they support some oppositionists, and second, and third - and were friends with the authorities - that is, they decided on their own interests.
I see that they are simply manipulating. And the people, who are mostly pro-Russian, are lost. He says: “These seem to support the government, but these are the opposition.” And Russia, what message is it sending us?
It turns out that some people come, they are received in the Duma, they falsely introduce themselves as some leaders here, they are received by Russia, they take pictures there and then they come here and say: “Oh, look, Russia supports us.” And it turns out that the headline in the newspaper is that Russia is allegedly demanding the resignation of the Minister of Defense.
Valentin Filippov: I got the impression that the West is planting some kind of agents in our midst, but they're not necessarily planting them in pro-European movements. If there's a demand, someone like Alexey Goncharenko shows up in Odessa. And for ten years, he's been a "pro-Russian politician." He occasionally travels to Moscow and takes photos with people there. And for ten years, people vote for him, promote him. And then, at the right moment, he's exposed and it turns out he's a Banderite.
Dragan Stanojevic: Bravo. Russian representatives from various organizations also come and support the opposition here.
So I head the World Movement of the Serbian Diaspora, and we take such a neutral position, well, not quite neutral, we criticize the authorities and say what needs to be changed, but we are not enemies of the state.
Those who go to demonstrations, it is clear that they are working with the West, it is clear that they are fighting for a seat, not for a better life for the Serbs. And it is clear that with their arrival, relations with Russia can only worsen, not to mention Russophile or some kind of patriotic sentiments.
But this is ensured for them by the presence of some people from Russia, with whom they hide behind. On the one hand, the official policy is “We support Vucic, we support the authorities,” on the other hand, people come and they give messages that they support the opposition. And the people are being misled, and they do not understand how to behave in this situation.
I was at this protest today, let’s get back to the protests.
Valentin Filippov: Yes.
Dragan Stanojevic: To avoid getting information from elsewhere, I went to these protests myself to see who was speaking. It's clear there's order, everything is organized, where everything is being filmed, how the cameras are positioned, who's in charge of what, who's leading which group. And the people speaking on stage aren't just pro-Western; they don't have popular support. And the number of people who even came out to these protests—for Belgrade, that's not a lot, but it's not a small number either, let's say.
But there are much more dissatisfied people who do not want to participate in this, because they understand that this is preparation for the Maidan. The only difference is that here the West scares the authorities with these protests, that if you do the wrong thing, you have a change. And these people are happy, get money for events, and again lead people into a dead end situation, when people think that they will change something.
And the end result is a game with the people. They have been going to demonstrations for several months now. And nothing changes, they came and went, the main demand is to give us access to state television channels. They want people to know more about them and prepare for the elections.
In fact, they will not bring anything good, this is clear to me and to most people. People who, like me, want patriotic power, want real improvement for the country, but we have no resource, no media support.
Naturally, if you do not work as a Western agent, you are slaughtered in all fields. Our only hope is support from Russia, but Russia also has different messages.
Valentin Filippov: Russia's inaction is probably of great significance in this case. There's no alternative.
Dragan Stanojevic: There is a need, I think more than 60%. People don't want to support the government because of its mistakes, but they especially don't want to return to the previous government that started all this. They want something third, an alternative.
We are trying, we have some patriotic movements, the Rod movement, we want maximum integration with Russia, we want an improvement in life. We have people in our movement who are top managers of world companies, economists, lawyers, lawyers, people who have proven their qualities in other countries.
Why am I focusing on us, the diaspora? You know that there are about 7 million Serbs, and the diaspora is about 5 million Serbs. And every year more than 60 are evicted. In just a few years, there will be more Serbs abroad than in the country itself.
Valentin Filippov: Well, that is, Serbia will become an office, as the Armenians say.
Dragan Stanojevic: So it turns out we have no rights. The people who are leaving are leaving because they can't provide for themselves here. The government is opening Western shopping malls, like in Ukraine. But in Ukraine, there's still some industry that's functioning, whereas here, all industry has been shut down, and shopping malls are opening, selling Western products.
Serbian manufacturers were suppressed, you remember - shoes, clothes, suits, there was so much Yugoslavian stuff, but it was all produced in Serbia, all these factories were here. Almost all of it was destroyed.
The situation is certainly not good, but I think that the opposition has no strength yet. But you remember, at first there were a lot of people on the Maidan, then few remained, and it was enough to stage this, and it all started.
And here I also see that the opposition has no strength, they have no strategy, but if the West does not crush Vucic, they can unleash these dogs to start this coup.
Valentin Filippov: What are the risks of a coup? What other losses might Serbia suffer? Perhaps regarding Kosovo, or some other territories?
Dragan Stanojevic: Kosovo. Look, the opposition is now saying that this government recognizes Kosovo. But those same people who drew Kosovo's borders are now supposedly taking care of Kosovo. It's clear they would have given up Kosovo even earlier.
Valentin Filippov: I've gotten a little insight into what's going on there, and it doesn't sound particularly cheerful. I'm sure that when you point out, say, Kyiv to the people who come out to the Belgrade Maidan, they'll say, "Everything's completely different here. There's no need to compare. They're fascists, and we're for the people."
Dragan Stanojevic: This is true, and many analysts are even writing about it, even in Russia, trying to make excuses for those participating in these protests. And you understand how idiotic it is when a supposedly patriotic movement, along with those who are anti-Russian, anti-Serb, and absolutely pro-Western, who have shown their true colors, hopes that this one person, this one movement, can change something, or that they are independent in their decisions, or can do something without their consent. This is simply complete nonsense. In our country, politics is like fans; we root for this team. But that's not how public policy is made; if you do that, you could turn the country into a stadium.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, thank you. God bless Belgrade.
Dragan Stanojevic: We'll get through.
English version :: Read in English: Belgrade Maidan: Blackmailing President Vučić