Do you remember the old days when the United States and its mouthpiece media outlets used to accuse foreign leaders of being dictators and autocrats for nationalizing natural resources or pursuing independent foreign policies which means Washington has to drop its smart bombs to spread democracy and human rights, right?
Those days aren’t over but the US has added a new criterion for foreign leaders to be labelled as autocrats and that is buying gas from Russia. Yes, you heard it right and the first victim is apparently Serbia’s president Aleksandar Vucic who sealed an “extremely favourable” natural gas deal with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, although it is not clear how Serbia would receive the Russian gas if the EU decides to shut off the Russian supply that travels over its member countries and with Russia already cutting off gas exports to EU members Finland, Poland and Bulgaria.
As the war in Ukraine rages and the economic situation deteriorates in Europe due to the counterproductive sanction regimes and banning the import of Russian gas, ordinary citizens are feeling the economic burden on their shoulders with complete disregard by a few European politicians. But not all leaders reject to take care of their people and Serbia which was once a victim of NATO refused to explicitly condemn Russia’s offensive on Ukraine and has not joined Western illegal sanctions against Moscow.
Serbia which is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas has been complaining of Western pressure to join sanctions against Russia and Serbian officials say the Balkan country must resist such pressure, even if it means abandoning the goal of joining the EU.
Consequently, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic is now called an autocrat by the mainstream media and accused of spreading “relentless pro-Kremlin propaganda” which has gradually slid Serbia toward aligning with Russia, according to The Associated Press.
However, the polls suggest a majority in Serbia would rather join some sort of a union with Moscow than the EU, which means Vucic is, in fact, following his people’s will instead of following the interests of Brussels technocrats or the American military-industrial complex, and that makes me ask: is the regime change heading towards Serbia?
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Kevork Almassian is an award-winning political commentator from Syria. He is the founder of Syriana Analysis and is known for his contribution to the literature on the Syrian war.