Voice of Russia
December 2, 2013

The Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Chepurin recently gave a speech at the Belgrade Academy for Diplomacy and Security in which he stated that Serbia joining NATO, an almost unbelievable development, would be a red line that in no way suits Russia. During his question and answer session with the students he also mentioned a second red line for Russia, namely that that nobody should pressure Serbia during EU negotiations and that any form of integration "must not interfere with the long tradition of cultural, economic, and political Russo-Serbian ties: because that is primarily in the interest of Serbia."

Media silence

While such statements and in fact the entire speech should have caused quite a stir in the world’s media there was almost no coverage nor reaction in the Western press. This is understandable with the current state of information warfare but further underlines the extent that the western media has been compromised, annexed and continues to hold an anti-Russian line, this time by omission.

It is understandable that the West is desperate and will do anything that it can to stop the spread or development of Russian influence, this is especially true of US/ NATO, especially in light of the their recent failures in Syria and Ukraine, and judging from the coverage of the event in the world’s English language media it would appear that the West is currently winning the information war, with even Russian media sources apparently "afraid" to publicize such stories.

Serbia a NATO member?

During his appearance at the Belgrade Academy for Diplomacy and Security, Chepurin stated that it would be; "utter stupidity if somebody from Serbia were to crawl over and beg (to join NATO), after the bombing that Serbia incurred and which caused damage worth US $120 billion. That's the red line that in no way suits Russia".

That is just one reason why it would be absurd to think of Serbia joining NATO, there are dozens of others, but the fact that US/NATO have never assisted in rebuilding what they destroyed, something they regularly do not do, is a key reason.

Another and perhaps even more monumentally important reason is of course Kosovo which US/NATO have annexed with the help of local Muslim Albanian forces and on the territory of which they immediately built the largest US military base outside of the United States after "recognizing its independence".

Yet another is the International Criminal Court on the Former Yugoslavia which has been completely biased and uneven in its prosecution of Serbs and has proven itself by its track record to be an instrument of the West.

Chepurin reiterated the fact that NATO was created as an alliance against the USSR and that its function in the modern world is questionable, something much of the free and independent world have stated since the dissolving of the Warsaw Pact and which US/NATO officials have also recently all but admitted to in public statements regarding "attempting to stay relevant".

The ambassador stated: "NATO was created against the Soviet Union, which is long gone, and it is absolutely unclear what NATO stands against now; or do you really want to go to war in Iraq, Libya, or Syria? There's no other advantage there or would you like to fraternize with Turkey, which is a NATO member."

The fact that NATO needs countries like Serbia, Ukraine and all of the other countries that it is trying to draw into its alliance more than those countries need NATO is a fact that should be underlined and the primary topic of debate but the West completely keeps that matter off the radar. Not only does NATO need the personnel and the resources of all of the countries it can get as cannon fodder for its endless wars, but it also needs the territories of all of the territories which will tolerate its presence to base its military forces and infrastructure in order to propagate itself and be an effective tool for the "projection of US force", as the Pentagon recently stated.

The ambassador made the very astute observation that countries do not have be members of NATO to be members of the EU, something the West has attempted to present as a given. He gave the examples of Austria, Sweden and Ireland.

Finally with regard to NATO Chepurin reminded the audience that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was in Belgrade recently, and received confirmation in all meetings that Serbia will not join NATO."
What NATO is and who controls it were also boldly summed up by the ambassador who said "NATO represents an atavism from the last century," and with regard to attempts to tie EU integration to NATO membership: "…. there are madmen who are trying to make use of that thesis!"

Serbia and the European Union

Regarding Serbia and EU membership the diplomat accepted the fact but made it clear that such should not damage ties with Russia, nor of future organizations: "nor should it additionally complicate its ties with the Eurasian Union, which will be created in 2015, and which considers development of relations with Serbia as very important." He also said "It is unacceptable for us that any form of integration should disrupt our relations, for example, our visa-free regime."

Ukraine

According to the website B92 net, one of the few site reporting on the event: "… on several occasions Chepurin stated that "everyone has an imagination that is shattered when it meets the reality," and mentioned Ukraine as an example of a country that "met the reality when it was supposed to sign the free trade agreement with the EU."

"There was an impression that each year tens of billions of euros would be arriving to Ukraine from the EU, while in fact it was about one billion over seven years. The damage from severing the free trade with Russia would have been a hundred times greater." he said.

This economic reality is of course something the West does not want the world to know about but it is the reality. The US with an actual debt of over $200 trillion and the European Union, whose countries are still reeling from economic crisis and is in fact economically questionable, needs more members to prop up its own house of cards and other than visa free regimes, more regulation, loss of sovereignty, opening internal markets to external exploitation and an outdated military bloc seeking to propagate itself into a worldwide force the EU really has little to offer.

Kosovo

On the key question of Kosovo Chepurin stressed that the Russian Federation continues to offer Serbia "absolute support" when it came to Kosovo, but that he "did not wish to comment too strongly on some internal issues in Serbia."

"There are several possibilities within international law for the thing to be resolved in a way in which Serbia is interested to resolve it. An impression is being created here that everything had fallen through, but this question requires effort and persistence. You must have faith that you are capable of solving that issue. The truth is on your side, and much depends on you," said the Russian ambassador.

Chepurin made it clear in so many words who was really behind the "independence of Kosovo" and likened those forces to the same ones who are backing and funding terrorist groups in the Russian Republic of Chechnya.

According to the site Tanjung speaking about the issue of Chechnya, Chepurin underlined that all secessionist forces cannot possibly endure without backing from abroad, and concerning the decision of ethnic Albanians to unilaterally proclaim Kosovo's independence, he concluded: "friends say: Kosovo is Serbia."

Kosovo is Serbia indeed and for many Serbians, it is their very heart.