LOCAL PRESS

 

Ban: Kosovo authorities to establish special war crimes court (Tanjug/RTS/Beta)

NEW YORK - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the latest report on the United Nations Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) called upon the Kosovo authorities to speed up the establishment of the specialist court for war crimes and to redouble their efforts in strengthening a broad public consensus around this issue. Ban welcomed the constitution of the Kosovo Assembly and the formation of the new government in Pristina, adding that “with key institutions in place, the Kosovo authorities should now move forward in addressing the many challenges still facing Kosovo”. “One important step would be for the government and the Assembly to move swiftly on the adoption of the legislation concerning the establishment of the specialist court to try cases arising from the findings of the European Union Special Investigative Task Force, as agreed between Kosovo and the European Union,” Ban said in his regular quarterly report published on the UN official web site. He urged Kosovo’s political leaders to “redouble their efforts in strengthening a broad public understanding and consensus around this issue, given its importance to Kosovo’s future”. “Sustained efforts should also continue in respect of the rule of law and in promoting genuine long-term reconciliation among Kosovo’s communities,” the UN Secretary-General said. He also urged Belgrade and Pristina to engage in the EU-facilitated dialogue fully, earnestly and as soon as possible at the leadership level. “This will be crucial in sustaining the engagement at the technical level and in moving forward on the implementation of the outstanding provisions of the 19 April 2013 agreement,” said Ban, adding that “the core issue in this respect remains the establishment, in accordance with the agreement, of the association/community of Serb municipalities”. Ban expressed concern over the “reports of population outflow from Kosovo during recent months”. The UN Secretary-General welcomed “the swift steps taken by the European Union to address corruption allegations within EULEX”. “It is important that these allegations not be used to undermine the important role that EULEX still plays in Kosovo and that all parties continue to fully cooperate with that body,” he said. “UNMIK continued its active facilitation role between communities and officials in northern Kosovo, as well as with international organizations and Kosovo authorities. It focused in particular on efforts aimed at preventing and reducing tensions and promoting cooperation among local authorities, in particular in North and South Mitrovica,” the report states. Ban pointed out that “the overall security situation in Kosovo remained stable during the reporting period, although some increase in the number of incidents in the ethnically mixed areas was observed”. “The responsible authorities in Belgrade and Pristina continued to pursue new sources of information and conduct investigations with respect to 1,655 remaining missing persons from the period from 1998 to 2000,” the UN Secretary-General noted. The report covering the period from October 16, 2014 to January 15, 2015, will be discussed at the UN Security Council session scheduled for February 6. According to announcements, Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic will also attend the session.

 

Djuric: Wrong decision to dismiss Jablanovic (Tanjug)

“The decision of Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa and Deputy Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi to dismiss Minister of Communities and Returns Aleksandar Jablanovic, member of the Serb (Srpska) List, is terribly wrong,” said the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric. Jablanovic is not responsible for what the Albanian public and protestors are accusing him. The decisions on further steps will be made after the meeting of the Serb members of the provincial government and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Wednesday evening. We will not accept the humiliation of Serb representatives in the provincial institutions,” Djuric said in a statement.

 

Jablanovic: After we consult with Vucic, we will take a stand on my dismissal (Beta/Tanjug)

The dismissed Kosovo Minister of Communities and Returns Aleksandar Jablanovic stated that he did not resign, and described Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa’s decision to exclude him from the government as deeply disappointing. “The protests held by the Self-Determination Movement were not so much directed against me as against Serbs and their participation in the government,” Jablanovic said. According to him, the Serb (Srpska) List will decide on its stand towards Kosovo’s ruling coalition in the coming days, after consultations with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and other relevant actors.

 

Dacic calls for urgent truce in Ukraine (Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister and the current Chairman of the OSCE Ivica Dacic has called on all actors of the continuing heavy fighting around Debaltsevo and the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the area to refrain from violence and to immediately stop all military activities. On humanitarian grounds, the OSCE Chairman calls on all actors in and around the Debaltsevo area to establish a local temporary truce for a minimum of three days, which should take immediate effect and be facilitated and supported by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, the OSCE said in a release on Tuesday. This would allow for an urgent evacuation of civilian population from the conflict zone, Dacic said. He asked Heidi Tagliavini, Special Representative to the Trilateral Contact Group, to pursue this proposal within the Group, the release said. The truce should also be used for immediate resumption of consultations aimed at ensuring a sustainable cease-fire and full implementation of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum, Dacic stressed. The two documents remain the basis for a peaceful settlement of the crisis, he said. The OSCE chairperson-in-office pointed out that the Trilateral Contact Group had stated its readiness to engage in such consultations without delays.

 

Serbian property in Kosovo-Metohija: Who owns our companies (NIN, by Dragana Pejovic)

By the time the Serbian and Albanian delegations in Brussels reach an agreement for Trepca, everything will already be over. Perhaps not the several-day-long demonstrations as well, since protests could only commence, on one or both sides, with a final decision. The distribution of enormous property, over which Serbia has ownership, will be over, and Pristina will have the possibility to administer. Trepca is the symbol of everything that Serbia has in the province and an eternal pawn when there is the desire to increase the blackmailing capacity of the negotiators in the upcoming, possibly most difficult, phase of agreements on property. Not without reason, because the argumentation of both sides in regard to the problem of this giant precisely illustrates all the complexity of property traps in the province of Kosovo-Metohija. In this case, just as in most other Kosovo-related cases, Serbia is still paying the loans of the companies in the province of Kosovo-Metohija. Just like in the Trepca case, the Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA), and now even the so-called “Kosovo Privatization Agency” (KPA) have already taken over, and, somewhere, even sold the public companies owned by Serbia. Just as for the southern part of the Trepca company, the authorities in Pristina demand compensation for damages of all laid-off workers of Albanian nationality in Serbian companies from the beginning of the 1990s. The temperature of the atmosphere before the resumption of the dialogue in Brussels on 9 February indicates an inevitable schedule of topics. Property is next on the table.

Pristina doesn’t recognize Serbia’s right to dispose with its “Kosovo resources,” so it ordered for the beginning of the new round of talks, the signing of an agreement with the French-Andorran consortium on purchasing the Brezovica ski center – a company from which Strpce lived and in which the Public Company ‘Ski Resorts Serbia’ had 20.25 percent, and the ‘Fund Ineks-Inter Eksport’ from Belgrade had 79. 75 percent of ownership.

Official evidence shows that in the province of Kosovo-Metohija, the company ‘Telekom’ alone has assets worth 32.8 million Euros (according to the current exchange rate), the ‘Electric Power Industry of Serbia’ (EPS) (without the hydro power plant Gazivode) 2.3 million Euros and Serbian Railways 206 million Euros. But, according to Pristina’s regulations, EPS’ assets belong to its public companies, namely, the Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEK) and the Kosovo Operator of System Transmission and Trade of electric energy (KOSTT). The property of Serbia Post (PTT) has been taken over by Pristina institutions so that, for the most part, of the 129 units of the postal network under the PTT, only some 27 remain under PTT control, of which 10 are newly constructed in the Kosovo Serb-inhabited enclaves of Gracanica, Strpce and Ranilug. Many Telekom facilities were taken over by the company Post and Telecommunication of Kosovo (PTK), in which the authorities have a 25 percent stake, and the remaining 75 percent the operator of land telephony Telekom Kosovo and mobile operator Val. And so on. After the takeover of Pristina airport it was rented in 2010 for 67 million euros in concession for 20 years to the Turkish-French consortium Limak airport d’Lyon.

Serbia’s right to this property stems from the Yugoslav Fund for the Development of Kosovo-Metohija, through which $4.37 billion was directed to the province between 1956-1990, in which Serbia took part with 40%. Furthermore, the companies from Serbia, by joining, directed funds for development, and based on the Law on the Fund for promoting development of the province, $150.5 million was directed in the course of 1990 and 1991, with one-percent tax on personal income of employees in the province of Kosovo-Metohija. The Kosovo economy was financed through the Fund for Development of the Republic of Serbia up until 1999, which has acquired the majority stake owned by 163 companies there worth 181. 35 million euros, implying accrued unpaid investment loan obligations (1. 62 million euros) and short-term investments (5. 82 million euros).

The President of the Serbian People’s Party Nenad Popovic, former head of the Economic Team for Kosovo-Metohija and the author of the book “Openly on the Economy of Kosovo-Metohija”, tells NIN that in the talks with the international community Serbian officials must persistently insist on confirming ownership over property, also because Serbia, only from 1961 to 1990, invested more than $17 billion into road, energy and telecommunication infrastructure and economy in Kosovo-Metohija. “Serbian officials must not believe the tactic maneuver of the authorities of the semi-state of Kosovo concerning the amendments to their law on public companies, but need to impose protection of Serbia’s property in Kosovo-Metohija as an urgent topic as early as on 9 February. Serbia must do everything to protect previous investments of public companies in Kosovo-Metohija, as well as to valorize their claims from the period prior to 1999, which is also guaranteed by the UNSC Resolution,” points Popovic.

After the adoption of UNSC Resolution 1244, UNMIK received the task to economically reconstruct Kosovo-Metohija. Thus, the UN Mission took over the administration of public companies by forming new ones, a total of 720 public companies. Some were given to private owners for long-term lease, but the real ownership labyrinth occurs after the KPA was established, which silently, with the agreement of the international community, converted UNMIK’s right to administer, into a right to sell, and since 2008 it privatized around 450 companies. Following the declaration of independence, the KPA becomes KAP, and the trace to Serbia’s ownership in Kosovo-Metohija has been gradually fading away.

Thus, the public company Srbijasume (Forestry of Serbia) with 335,000 hectares of land has become part of the Kosovo agency for forestry, while in the record books the property of the Railways of Serbia worth 206 million euros turned into the Railways of Kosovo (Trainkos). In accordance with Pristina’s regulations, 31 facilities of NIS (Serbian Oil Industry) Petrol-Jugopetrol, valued at 15.5 million euros in 2003, has been transferred into public property and leased to Kosovo Petrol.

The Serbian Government Office for Kosovo-Metohija has in its records 16 active Serbian companies that were founded by the Republic of Serbia, and 47 that were founded by the local self-government, with a total of 6,794 employees. Another 319,000 hectares are the state property of Serbia, and public property are 157,000 hectares of land, more than two million square meters of official and residence buildings, restaurants, resorts… Obviously, both sides expect permanent settlement out of court. And both sides agree, due to the investment environment, that it should be known who owns what. This is the only thing they agree on. So that when the Serbian government looks for a strategic partner for Trepca, it is in fact sending a message that it will not give up its property and that the law is on its side, and when the problem of Trepca reaches the provincial interim Kosovo Assembly, the hook is thrown directly into the lap of rigid legalists, despite domestic oppositionists headed by the Self-Determination Movement that demands that Trepca turns into a public company and that a Serb minister leaves the government. This is to remind them that the law was exempted from the takeover process of Serbia’s assets worth millions, which it no longer administers, in which a Serb is no longer employed and from which it has not been collecting one single dime of taxes.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Dodik convinced “genocide was committed against Serbs” (Srna)

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik says the Serbs will adhere to the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the Croatia and Serbia’s mutual genocide suits and that “the feeling remains that crimes and injustice were committed against Serbs, the greatest victims of Yugoslavia’s disintegration”. Following a meeting with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Tuesday, Dodik stated that the court’s decisions must be accepted no matter what, but that it was also true that the same events had been qualified differently in the case of B&H against Serbia. The RS President Milorad Dodik stated on Tuesday that genocide was committed against Serbs in Croatia during the 1990s. Dodik underscored that there were “historical, population, property and other facts that indicate that genocide was committed against Serbs in Croatia”, and noted that Serbs disappeared from a large area we now know as the Republic of Croatia. He recalled that a legal procedure for the genocide committed against Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in World War II was never carried out and that the Ustasha regime murdered a large number of Serbs in the Jasenovac death camp, while were expelled from entire areas what is today the RS and Croatia, “in order to execute a nation”. Dodik said that the RS government will respect the ICJ judgment, but that “a sense of a crime and injustice done to Serbs, as those who suffered the most in the territory of former Yugoslavia in the process of disintegration of former joint state, still remain”. According to him, it would be positive for the ICJ ruling to serve as an incentive to better cooperation between Serbs and Croats “so that they would finally leave behind historical conflicts and so that everyone would do what they can to move forward”. Dodik noted that one of the positive aspects of the ICJ decision could be to declare amnesty in Croatia in a number of cases against Serbs, “which would show that the ICJ decision in The Hague has been taken the right way”. Reflecting on the mutual genocide lawsuits filed by the RS and the Muslim-Croat entity, the Federation of B&H (FB&H), Dodik said that the fact was ignored and abused that a half of Bosnia was not in favor of conducting such a case. “Nevertheless, the court ignored this and did not wish to re-examine the decision, which leads me to an impression that many decisions of international courts of this kind were politically motivated,” the RS President was quoted as saying.

 

Zaev is defocusing- it is clear that Greece has the biggest interest to harm FYROM (Kurir.mk)

The FYROM public is stunned after posting the video discussion in which the SDSM leader threatens FYROM Prime Minister. Secret meeting between Gruevski and Zaev in which opposition kept blackmailing the official, with great pleasure was accepted only in Greece.

Greek media defend Zaev and leader from Bihachka “is sailing under false colors.”

As it can be heard from the video conversation, without being asked for what kind of foreign services are in question Zaev said he has cooperated with foreign services but not from the region, but also from further, afield. Such a rushed response can only mean one-he wanted to defocus this part of the conversation. Zoran Zaev is very clear that everyone knows which the Foreign Service that meant to harm FYROM is. Greece service has the largest service interest and capacity to create this condition in order to destabilize the country. Perhaps that is why Zaev is rushing to say that informant-foreign service is not from the neighborhood. The fact that the Greek media have greatly defended Zaev, it is just another proof who from the country has the most similar views with our southern neighbor. Analyst Aleksandar Pandov says if you analyze the information in the past months, frequent visits of Zaev in Greece, the problem of Greece with our name, language, identity … places huge doubt that most probably are the Greek authorities. It is clear that the current ongoing talks with UN mediator Matthew Nimetz, the request for change of the constitutional name of the Republic of Macedonia is not only the request of the other party. It is for the whole package of identity, language … does not stop only for the name. If they have their own player here, which is subservient and who will fulfill all their wishes and requirements, they would absolutely not stop only to change the name of the state, believes analyst Aleksandar Pandov. Professor for International Law and Human Rights, Aleksandar Dashtevski has similar opinion. And he is assuming that the biggest interest of all has Greece. In addition, journalist Dragan Pavlovich Latas, yesterday at the national MTV show “Emphasis” assumes that the materials are received or from the Greek or the Turkish intelligence. In addition, the citizens of Macedonia, has doubt on the Greek intelligence services. Comments on social networks and mutual conversations are that Greece is the only country that has interest to do this. The assumption is that they need man at the head of state, with whom then very easy will achieve their interests, or change the name, the language, the identity of Macedonians.

 

Greek media defend Zaev (Kurir.mk)

Defense for Zoran Zaev and accusations for Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is what dominates in the writings of Greek media and portals for the attempted pouch in FYROM, writes the Netpress reporter from Athens. Zaev’s persecution is obstructing security of the country, the Prime Minister Gruevski is a dictator – these are part of the constructions that you can read in Greece on the occasion of the scandal that shakes the largest opposition party. Online magazine for diplomacy and strategy Via diplomacy, defending Zaev said that the Prime Minister Gruevski has used the judiciary and police to involve the opposition leader in the spy scandal that enveloped the conspiracy theory. Argued, that the decision to prosecute Zaev presents the risk to the stability of the country in the context of inter-ethnic relations.

Whether this option will serve the Prime Minister of the neighboring country will see in the coming days, according to the reactions of the United States and members of the European Parliament who used to support Nikola Gruevski, which is now accused of adopting decisions of totalitarian character, claims the magazine.

Greek nationalist portal “Defence point” stood on the side of Zoran Zaev.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Ethnic Serb politician is sacked after remarks trigger unrest in Kosovo (Euronews, 3 February 2015)

Kosovo has sacked one of its government ministers after he described Kosovo Albanians as savages when they protested at Serb pilgrims marking Orthodox Christmas in January. Aleksandar Jablanovic’s remarks triggered the worst unrest Kosovo has seen in the seven years since proclaiming itself an independent state. Jablanovic who is himself an ethnic Serb, has since apologised for his remarks, but also said following his sacking that his Serb List party will decide on its position within the ruling coalition within the next few days. Kosovo’s coalition commands enough seats in parliament to survive a Serb withdrawal, but the constitution requires at least one cabinet minister to be from the Serb minority.

 

Kosovo fires ethnic Serb minister to avert more violence (Reuters, by Fatos Bytyci, 3 February 2015)

PRISTINA - An ethnic Serb minister in Kosovo's government was fired on Tuesday to try to avert more violent protests over a remark he made last month that offended the Balkan country's ethnic Albanian majority. Aleksandar Jablanovic, minister for communities, had branded as "savages" a group of Kosovo Albanians protesting against ethnic Serb pilgrims marking Orthodox Christmas in January. The remark was one of the triggers last week for the worst unrest in Kosovo's seven years as an independent state, with police and protesters fighting running battles in the capital, Pristina. Among those protesting were mothers of Kosovo Albanians killed in Kosovo's 1998-99 war in which the former Serbian province broke away from Belgrade. Opposition parties had called for another protest on Wednesday. But on Tuesday, Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, facing a turbulent first two months in office, told a news conference Jablanovic was out. "From today, minister Jablanovic is not anymore part of the cabinet," he said, refusing to elaborate. The opposition canceled the protest. Jablanovic, speaking to a local television station, said the decision was "unacceptable" and that his Serb List party would decide on its position within Mustafa's ruling coalition within the next few days. The coalition commands enough seats in parliament to survive a Serb withdrawal, but the constitution requires at least one cabinet minister to be from the Serb minority. Jablanovic had apologized for his remark, but that did little to placate protesters also angry at the government after backing down on a pledge to take control of a huge mining complex also claimed by Serbia.

 

Croatia and Serbia Cleared of Genocide by Hague Court (New York Times, by Marlise Simons, 3 February 2015)

The president of the International Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that Serbia and Croatia did not commit genocide against each other during the breakup of Yugoslavia.

PARIS — The highest court of the United Nations ruled on Tuesday that neither Croatia nor Serbia committed genocide against each other’s peoples when they waged war during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The two separate rulings were the result of civil lawsuits that both countries had filed at the court, the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Each claimed the other had violated the Genocide Convention. Croatia, moreover, demanded extensive reparations for war damages. Peter Tomka, the presiding judge from Slovakia who read out the verdicts, spoke of the killings of civilians and the widespread destruction committed by the forces from both sides. But he said the large-scale operations to displace people in the two countries did not meet the criteria for genocide. “Genocide requires the intent to destroy a group,” he said, “not to inflict damage on it or to remove the population.” The rulings did not come as a surprise, and even during the drawn-out proceedings, lawyers from the opposing teams said privately they had little expectation of winning. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, a specially created tribunal that has spent almost two decades trying criminal cases related to the violence of the 1990s, has not convicted anyone for genocide in Serbia or Croatia, only in Bosnia. The findings by the International Court of Justice a civil court that settles disputes between nations and deals largely with treaty violations, leaned heavily on the special tribunal's findings. Officials from both countries who attended the solemn session in the crowded great hall of the Peace Palace in The Hague put on a good face after the almost two-hour reading, which was broadcast on the United Nations website. Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic of Croatia told reporters that she hoped the ruling would help close “this chapter of history and to move on to a better and safer period for people in this part of Europe.” Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic of Serbia told reporters that “I’m convinced we will start a new page for a future that is much brighter and better.” Serbia has long been trying to work on an out-of-court settlement rather than continue the costly legal proceedings. Some political leaders in Croatia have said privately they agreed, but they could not be seen dropping the genocide case for fear of ridicule as weaklings and traitors by the opposition. The unusual case – only once has a nation sued another for genocide, when Bosnia sued Serbia – dates to 1999, when Croatia filed its case against Serbia. Croatia contended genocide was committed in Vukovar and other towns in the Krajina region, starting in 1991 when Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia but Serbian separatists occupied almost one-third of Croatia. More than 12,000 Croatian civilians were killed during shelling campaigns, thousands were incarcerated in camps and up to 100,000 people fled their homes, the suit said. Serbia filed a countersuit in 2010 when Croatia would not withdraw its case in The Hague. Serbia said more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs had been forced to flee their homes and ancestral lands when Croatia launched a military campaign in 1995 to retake its territory. Both governments had said they would accept the verdict, although in both countries resentments still run deep.

 

Serbia Disappointed With ICJ’s Rejection of Claim Against Croatia (Sputnik, 4 February 2015)

President Tomislav Nikolic said the International Court of Justice failed to deliver justice rejecting his country's claim over Croatia's expulsion of more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs

MOSCOW — The International Court of Justice (ICJ) failed to deliver justice in rejecting Serbia's claim over Croatia's expulsion of more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic told Sputnik on Wednesday. "UN International Court [of Justice] did not deliver justice and made a verdict that we must respect," Nikolic said. He said that the verdict did not satisfy either of the parties involved but pointed out that his country would end its dispute with Croatia. "The only thing left for us to do is to normalize our relations [with Croatia]," the Serbian president told Sputnik, adding that his country had moved on from the tragedies of the past long ago. On Tuesday, the court in The Hague rejected both Croatia's genocide claim against Serbia and the latter's counterclaim. In 1999, the Croatian government accused Serbia of genocide in the town of Vukovar and other locations following Croatia's secession from Yugoslavia in 1991. In 2010, Serbia filed a counterclaim over Croatia's expulsion of over 200,000 Serbs.

 

Putin must be stopped. And sometimes only guns can stop guns (The Guardian, by Timothy Garton Ash, 1 February 2015)

The time for diplomacy will come again, but it is not now: Ukraine urgently needs military support, and a counter to Russian propaganda

Vladimir Putin is the Slobodan Milošević of the former Soviet Union: as bad, but bigger. Behind a smokescreen of lies he has renewed his drive to carve out a puppet para-state in eastern Ukraine. Innocent bystanders are killed in the Black Sea port of Mariupol. In besieged Debaltseve, a woman scoops water from a giant puddle in the road. The rubble that was once Donetsk airport recalls a scene from martyred Syria. About 5,000 people have already been killed in this armed conflict, and more than 500,000 uprooted. Preoccupied by Greece and the eurozone, Europe is letting another Bosnia happen in its own front yard. Wake up, Europe. If we have learned anything from our own history, Putin must be stopped. But how? In the end, there will have to be a negotiated solution. German chancellor Angela Merkel and foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier have been right to keep trying diplomacy, but even they concluded in mid-January that it wasn’t worth going to meet Putin in Kazakhstan. On Saturday another attempt to agree a ceasefire failed in Minsk. Diplomacy’s time will come again, but it is not now. We should ratchet up the economic sanctions against Russia. Combined with the impact of the fallen oil price, these are already having a significant effect. Despite a small wobble from the new Greek government, the EU last week kept its unity on extending sanctions. Won’t that feed a siege mentality in Russia? Yes, but then the Putin regime is stoking that mentality with its nationalist, anti-western propaganda. If the threat did not exist, Russian television would invent it. Like Milošević, Putin is prepared to use every instrument at his disposal, with no holds barred. Like Milošević, Putin is prepared to use every instrument at his disposal, with no holds barred. In his war against the west he has deployed heavy military equipment, energy-supply blackmail, cyber-attack, propaganda by sophisticated, well-funded broadcasters, covert operations and agents of influence in EU capitals – oh yes, and Russian bombers nosing up the English Channel with their transponders off, potentially endangering civilian flights. There is a Polish saying which translates roughly as “we play chess with them, they play kick-arse with us”. (Dupniak, or kick-arse, is a Polish game in which people try to identify who kicked them from behind.) This is the problem of the democratic west in general and the slow-moving, multi-nation EU in particular. It was recently exemplified in a woefully unrealistic chess paper on strategy towards Russia prepared for Federica Mogherini, the EU’s new high representative for foreign and security policy. In the long run, Putin will lose. The people who will suffer most from his folly will be the Russians, not least those in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. But the long run for skilful, ruthless dictators in large, well-armed, resource-rich and psychologically bruised nations can be quite long. Before he goes, more blood and tears will flow unquietly down the river Donets. So the challenge is to shorten that period and stop the mayhem. To do this Ukraine needs modern defensive weapons to counter Russia’s modern offensive ones. Spurred on by John McCain, the US Congress has passed a Ukraine Freedom Support Act which allocates funds for the supply of military equipment to Ukraine. It is now up to President Obama to determine the timing and composition of those supplies. A report by a group including Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to Nato, and Strobe Talbott, the veteran Russia expert, identifies the equipment needed: “counter-battery radars to locate long-range rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), electronic countermeasures for use against opposing UAVs, secure communications capabilities, armoured Humvees and medical support equipment”. Only when Ukrainian military defence can plausibly hold Russian offence to a stalemate will a negotiated settlement become possible. Sometimes it takes guns to stop the guns. Won’t such arms supplies further nourish a Russian paranoia of encirclement? Yes, but Putin is feeding the paranoia already, untroubled by the facts. He recently told students in St Petersburg that the Ukrainian army “is not an army, it is a foreign legion, in this case a Nato foreign legion”. The EU could never secure unanimity on such military supplies. If at all, it would have to be done by individual countries. Although this may bring back the old jibe that “America does the cooking and Europe the washing up”, there is a case for the US doing most of the heavy military supply. The US has the best kit, it is probably in the best position to control its use, and is less vulnerable to bilateral economic or energy-supply pressures. The overall burden-sharing would be fair. European economies take most of the pain of sanctions, since they have more invested with Russia; they will provide a lot of the economic support Ukraine needs if it is to survive; and they are doing most of the diplomacy. In fact, McCain and Merkel make a perfect hard cop, soft cop combination. We need to counter this propaganda. No one is better placed to do this than the BBC. There is one other area in which Europe in general, and Britain in particular, can do more. Broadcast media are usually classed as soft power, but they are as important to Putin as his T-80 tanks. He has invested in them heavily. Among Russian speakers – including in eastern Ukraine and the Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic states – he has used television to impose his own narrative of a socially conservative, proud Russia threatened by fascists in Kiev, an expansionist Nato and a decadent EU. Last year a Russianist of my acquaintance was sitting naked and at ease in the hot tub with a friend of his in Moscow after several vodkas, as is the Russian custom, when this highly educated Russian asked: “So tell me, honestly, why do you support the fascists in Kiev?” We need to counter this propaganda not with lies of our own but with reliable information and a scrupulously presented array of different views. No one is better placed to do this than the BBC. The US may have the best drones in the world, and Germany the best machine tools, but Britain has the best international broadcaster. And there is an appetite for it: the BBC’s sadly diminished online Russian-language service still has an audience of nearly seven million, and during the crisis its Ukrainian-language audience has tripled to more than 600,000. In his excellent report on the future of news, James Harding, the head of BBC News, makes a strong commitment to growing the World Service. Immediately stepping up its Russian and Ukrainian offerings would be a good way for the BBC to show that it will put its money where its mouth is. Without compromising the BBC’s independence, the British government could also chip in some extra funding. If ever there were people in need of accurate, fair, balanced information, it is Russians and Ukrainians today. None of these things will stop Putin tomorrow, but in combination they will work in the end. Dictators win in the short run, democracies in the long.

 

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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ. The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.