Russia Serbia Relations at the Beginning of XXI Century
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Russia Serbia Relations at the beginning of XXI Century RUSSIA SERBIA RELATIONS AT THE BEGINNING OF XXI CENTURY 1 Russia Serbia Relations at the beginning of XXI Century - ESSAY COMPENDIUM – © ISAC Fund EDITOR Žarko N. Petrović PUBLISHER ISAC Fund International and Security Affairs Centre Kapetan Mišina 5 11000 Belgrade www.isac-fund.org THIS PUBLICATION WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE KIND DONATION OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE KINGDOM OF NORWAY EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Nikola Petrović DESIGN Nenad Baćanović PRINT Colorgrafx Beograd, 2010 All ISAC Fund’s outputs are generously supported by the OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE 2 RUSSIA SERBIA RELATIONS AT THE BEGINNING OF XXI CENTURY Content Žarko N. Petrović Russia-Serbia Relations: Three years’ result .................................................................................................................................5 HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS OF RUSSIA - SERBIA RELATIONS ........................................................9 Dr. Miroslav Jovanović Two Russias: On the Two Dominant Discourses of Russia in the Serbian Public ..................................................................................11 Aleksey Timofeev Myths about Russia and Dynamics of the Development of Russian Foreign Policy Interests in the West Balkans ................................19 Žarko N. Petrović Russian – Serbian Strategic Partnership: Scope and Content ............................................................................................................25 OBSERVATIONS ON CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA ............................................................................................. 41 Dr Nikolay Petrov Economic Crisis in Russia and Its Effect on the Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy ...........................................................................43 Mikhail Vinogradov Russian Authorities: the Decision-Making System and the Social Context .........................................................................................49 Dr Olga Sadovskaya Aleksandrovna Freedom of Expression in Russia - Russian Mass Media: Freedom, Censorship or Self Control? ...........................................................57 Dr Zorana Z. Mihajlović Milanović Energy-Economic Relations Between Russia, the Neighbouring Countries and the European Union: Energy Dependency and/or Interdependence ..................................................................................................................................61 Dr Modest Kolerov Introductory remarks at the ISAC Fund’s 2nd roundtable on Serbia Russia Relations, April 21st 2009 ...................................................71 Dr Nikolay Petrov Introductory remarks at the ISAC Fund’s 2nd roundtable on Serbia Russia Relations, April 21st 2009 ...................................................75 EURASIA SECURITY FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................................. 81 Dr Andrei Zagorski Russia and the West: Revisionism or Status quo? .............................................................................................................................83 Dr Andrew Monaghan Setting an agenda? Russian Views of Evolving Russia-Western Relations ..........................................................................................89 Srđan Gligorijević Russia, Serbia and NATO ..................................................................................................................................................................95 Žarko N. Petrović Russian Vision of Security in Europe and Serbia ................................................................................................................................101 RUSSIA SERBIA RELATIONS AT THE BEGINNING OF XXI CENTURY 3 RUSSIA’S ROLE IN THE PROVISION OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SECURITY IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE ................ 115 Dr. Igor Tomberg The Prospects of Cooperation between South East Europe and Russia in Ensuring the Long-term Energy Security of the Continent ...117 Dr. Pavel ‘K. Baev Zero Option in the Virtual Pipeline Race: Russia and the EU Need to downsize their Energy Ambitions ..............................................125 Dr. András Deák Assessing Russian Commitments to the 2015 South Stream Deadline ..............................................................................................131 Dr. Konstantin Simonov Russian Energy Interests in South-Eastern Europe ............................................................................................................................139 Milan Simurdić Russian Energy Policy and the Balkans ............................................................................................................................................147 Dr Zorana Z. Mihajlović Milanović Serbian Energy Sector – Status and Contemporary Russian – Serbian Energy Relations ....................................................................153 Anatoly Pomorcev Russia Serbia Energy Deal: Two Sides of a Coin .................................................................................................................................163 Dr Zorana Z. Mihajlović Milanović Energy Security in South-East Europe in Light of Russian Energy Policy ............................................................................................167 Dr Igor Tomberg Introductory remarks at the ISAC Fund’s 3rd roundtable on Serbia Russia Relations, October 19th 2009 ...............................................175 Dr Pavel K. Baev Introductory remarks at the ISAC Fund’s 3rd roundtable on Serbia Russia Relations, October 19th 2009 ...............................................177 RUSSIAN SERBIAN COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF CULTURE ........................................................................ 181 Dr. Miroslav Jovanović In The Shadow of Gas and Politics: Cultural and Spiritual Contacts, Connections and Cooperation between Serbia and Russia ...........183 Dr. Goran Miloradović Russian / Soviet Cultural Influence in Serbia / Yugoslavia In the XX and XXI Century ..........................................................................193 4 RUSSIA SERBIA RELATIONS AT THE BEGINNING OF XXI CENTURY Russia-Serbia Relations: Three years’ result Žarko N. Petrović1 Towards the end of Kosovo status negotiations in 2007 and 2008 the Serbian political scene was filled with historically frequent, yet unusually intensive surge of enthusiasm towards Russia, its interests, priorities, and its Western Balkans policy. Praises of the modern day Russia and its internal political model became a common practice, which further led to a greater perception, among Serbian citizens, of Russia being a key political resource that Serbia could seriously rely upon. However, all these commendations, wishes and activities, were rather based on emotional and irrational grounds. They were formed by the historical closeness of the two peoples (defined by ethnicity, not by citizenship), and the common religious and cultural heritage, which were, according to this logic, easy to be transferred to the political level. Reasons for this increased enthusiasm naturally lay in the unresolved Kosovo status issue, but also in the rising number of economic and political problems. Russia has been perceived, as many times before in Serbian history, as a protector, with a sufficient political and economic capacity to help resolveS erbian problems. At the same time, scientific and rational arguments about Russia’s role and position were practically ignored, starting from the obvious (geographical distance), through more sophisticated ones (realistic interests and politics of Russia), to the completely theological (Russia’s vision of Serbia’s future and its social and political model) arguments. Considering the strong emotional discourse, which marked the writings and public appearances of many experts and analysts, there is an apparent need for a more sober and realistic assessment and analysis of Russia’s foreign policy. It is necessary to spread information on contemporary Russia and to critically present both positive and negative aspects of this country, that is of great importance for Serbia. Finally, considering the big turn of Serbian foreign policy towards Moscow since 2008, there is also a need for the analysis of such movements, in the light of Serbia’s EU integration efforts. During the last two years, the International and Security Affairs Centre ISA( C Fund) has provided a forum for discussion for a great number of national and foreign authors, partly by organizing several round tables on the topics of Russia and Russia - Serbia relations. The complete material, produced as the result of the project, is available at the ISAC Fund’s website. At the very end of this two-year project, ISAC Fund wishes to gather the conclusions and present them to the Serbian public. The initial presumption of the ISAC Fund was that, in Serbia, there is very little information on contemporary Russia, and that even those come mostly from biased resources, which are either pro-Western or Russian. In addition, the interpreters of these information are often biased themselves, hence distorting the objective image of Russia and Russian – Serbian relations. By providing space for both Russian and Serbian authors of different political backgrounds, theISA C Fund aimed to achieve balance between the existing varied opinions, from both Serbia and Russia. Extreme views were ignored. At the same time,