Tuesday, April 12, 2011

SERBIA - Belgrade under the spell of "Putin Serbian"

To believe the Serbian media, the "poutinomania" seized from Serbia during the visit of Russian Prime Minister in Belgrade on March 23. "Putin Serbian!" A headline in the tabloid Kurir, referring to the 30,000 people who cheered the Russian visitor at a football match at the Red Star stadium in Belgrade.

The prime minister was also greeted by hundreds of "fans" to Parliament, noted the daily Politika, while noting that they were mostly militants Serbian Radical Party (ultra-nationalist) or from various organizations of the far-right . "Vladimir Putin has visited Belgrade at no charge. The patriarch, the President, the Dean of the University of Belgrade, Nis bikers (south) and footballers ran after him to cover it with decorations, gifts, securities football shirts and "ironically the site of Pescanik opinion.

On the same tone, the daily online e-novine believes that the climax of the visit was the football match between the juniors and those of Crvena Zvezda Moscow Zenit [both teams are sponsored by Gazprom. The public has welcomed the arrival of Putin in chants of Soviet World War II]. "The prime minister shared his passion for sport with so-called hooligans here and represent a major problem for Serbia." "Much of the Serb population, influenced by propaganda long, saw the Russians species vigilante for all she has suffered: the end of Yugoslavia, military defeats and the loss of Kosovo," says the writer Filip David.

Once the euphoria has passed, the Serbian press has also questioned the practical impact of the visit of Vladimir Putin in Slovenia and Serbia. "He went to Ljubljana to answer questions, to Belgrade to give lessons," wrote the daily Blic with reference to the opposition expressed by the Russian Prime Minister, accession of Serbia to the Atlantic Alliance (NATO).

For university professor Zoran Dragisic, "it is highly significant that Putin sends negative signals with respect to NATO from Belgrade, while he abstains in Brussels or in other countries such as Bulgaria, where Moscow has invested eight times more than in Serbia. " Russian investment, precisely, were at the heart of Putin's visit to Belgrade.

The Prime Minister has confirmed the above construction of gas pipeline South Stream (to deliver Russian gas to Western Europe bypassing Ukraine) despite the prevarication of Turkey. Serbia is part of the project and to do so, Belgrade has even sold in 2008 the state company Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) to Gazprom in return pledged to pay off his debts.

"Putin came to Belgrade with a basket of investment projects of around 10 billion dollars but much of that sum will go to NIS and modernization of the army," says Blic. "For other investment projects, we have not progressed beyond promises," concludes the daily Danas.

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