Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again called for international law to be respected in order to avoid situations similar to the bombing of Yugoslavia.
Putin, who spoke during plenary session of the International Arctic Forum in St. Petersburg, referenced NATO's 1999 aerial war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, i.e., Serbia and Montenegro.
On the eve of celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Czech Republic’s NATO membership, the country’s President Milos Zeman said the Alliance’s bombing of the then Yugoslavia in 1999 was a mistake and that he did not gladly look back at the time, BETA news agency reported.
Zeman said the Czech Republic was the newest NATO member who joined the Alliance only three weeks before the decision on the bombing of Yugoslavia was made, and that “it would not have been normal for a newcomer to veto the move as the only country to do so.”