Russia has issued a warning against a repeat bombing campaign by NATO’s Western military alliance against Yugoslavia on its 22nd anniversary, while Washington’s top diplomat seeks to reunite the alliance for the first time under the banner of US President Joe Biden’s government.
“This evil, like NATO’s aggression against Yugoslavia, must never be repeated,” said the Moscow embassy in Belgrade, then capital of Yugoslavia and today capital of Serbia, in a statement on Wednesday in reference to the NATO attack. 1999 to the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The statement argued that the attack violated “the basic principles of international law set out in the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and other international documents”.
The air campaign was launched in response to accusations that Yugoslavia’s security forces had conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign against ethnic Albanians in the fight against the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army. Both Russia and China used their privileges as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to veto international action, arguing the need for a peaceful settlement rather than the use of force.
NATO went ahead anyway, with Moscow protesting to this day.
“During the 78 days of the barbaric bombing, which was cynically portrayed as a ‘humanitarian intervention in the name of refugee rescue’, about 2,000 civilians were killed,” said the embassy. “A significant part of the country’s infrastructure and industrial capacity has been destroyed. Thousands of civilian buildings have been destroyed. The use of depleted uranium ammunition has led to irreversible contamination in various regions of the soil and groundwater.”
The New York-based Human Rights Watch monitor estimated the number of Yugoslav civilians killed at around 500, although local officials at the time approached the Russian estimate.
Included in the collateral damage of the campaign was the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, where U.S. bombs killed at least three Chinese citizens and wounded more than two dozen.
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The statement also complains of “enormous damage” not only to physical infrastructure, but also “to the architecture of peace and security in Europe and to international stability”.
The bombing, argued Russia, paved the way for new interventions around the world, including “a whole series of Western operations with the implementation of forces initiated under propagandist pronouncement, without the approval of the UN Security Council or with perverted interpretation. of the mandate assigned by the Security Council. “
“Russia will resolutely continue to advocate strict adherence to universal international legal standards, such as the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states,” said the embassy. “In this context, we will support all efforts that contribute to Belgrade and Pristina reaching a sustainable and mutually acceptable solution that meets the interests of the people of Serbia and international law.”
In a tweet, Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Mikhail Ulyanov, called the then Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov’s decision to cancel the high-level US talks on the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia “the first real and truly resonant step for a turnaround of Russian foreign policy for the protection of civilized world order based on international law and Russia’s national interests. “
To mark a decade since the NATO bombing of Libya, the Russian embassy in Washington recently accused the alliance of wrongly seeking regime change against former Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi “with the most devastating consequences” in comments recently shared with Newsweek.
Amid tense ties with NATO today, Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military Security and Arms Control, criticized what he called NATO’s “Russian Federation containment policy” during a Wednesday meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation at the European Forum for Security Cooperation. Such an approach, he argued, was “counterproductive and only weakens stability in Europe”.
He urged NATO to choose between “restraint or dialogue with our country”.
But that same day, the alliance was receiving a high-profile guest for the first time, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who told reporters that he “had a long discussion about Russia” with his colleagues.
“I think we all hope that our relationship with Russia will remain a challenge for the foreseeable future, but we are prepared for that,” said Blinken. “And, ultimately, I think what we can expect is to have a relationship with Russia that is at least predictable and stable and, given that, our intention is to involve Russia in ways that promote our interests, while we keep our eyes wide open about the challenges it presents. “
He later cited some specific areas of containment between Washington and Moscow, warning of “new military capabilities and strategies that Russia has developed to challenge our alliances and undermine the rule-based order that guarantees our collective security”.
“This includes Moscow’s aggression in eastern Ukraine, its increase in strength, large-scale exercises and acts of intimidation in the Baltic and Black Sea, the eastern Mediterranean, the far North, its modernization of nuclear capabilities and the use of weapons chemicals against critics on NATO soil, “said Blinken.
He also accused Russia of using “disinformation to undermine confidence in elections and safe and effective vaccines”.
The Biden government has sought to reinvigorate US-NATO ties that have been tense under former President Donald Trump, and has attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin, agreeing that he is “an assassin” and warning that he “would pay a price” for allegedly interfering in 2020 elections in the USA.
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Putin gave an unusual answer.
“As for my American colleague’s statements, how would I respond to him?” Putin asked rhetorically. “I said to him, ‘Be healthy!’ I wish you good health. “
He then warned, “Whatever you call me, you are called yourself,” and told a selective story from the United States, including mass murders of Native Americans, the slavery of African Americans and the use of nuclear weapons. in combat. Putin himself is accused of orchestrating the death of dissidents, as well as the attempted poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Biden’s comments sparked outrage in Moscow, where Putin challenged Biden to a live discussion, an offer that has not yet been accepted.
The White House national security adviser told MSNBC on Monday that he expects “to have difficult days with Russia, because there are issues on which we strongly disagree and actions we need to respond to vigorously”.
His Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, said on Wednesday that such comments indicated that Washington was seeking and planning such a result.
“And if they are planning this, they can implement it, but then they will be responsible for the measures they will take,” said Patrushev, according to the state news agency Tass Russian News.
He left the door open for cooperation, however.
“We are committed to constructive cooperation that takes into account the interests of each of the parties and that is equal,” he said. “Let me emphasize that we are not taking any hostile action against the United States, we are not taking any now, nor are we planning to take any in the future.”