KECMANOVIĆ: PUTIN'S TRIUMPH ENCOURAGES SERBS TO RESIST THE WEST'S PRESSURES

BELGRADE, MARCH 19 /SRNA/ - Political scientist Nenad Kecmanović has assessed that the convincing victory of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections in Russia represents a great incentive for Serbs to resist all pressure from the West.

Kecmanović believes that Putin's electoral triumph strengthens confidence that Srpska and Serbia are once again on the right side of history and that they should endure with even greater unity, energy and determination of the Serbs. "It is already felt in the neighborhood, because it is not wise to attack Putin's friend /Srpska president Milorad/ Dodik", Kecmanović told SRNA. He pointed out that the consequences of Putin's grand victory for Serbia are ambiguous, explaining that, along with the positive aspects, we should also take into account the ever fiercer pressures by the collective West. "We see these ever fiercer pressures from the West in the performance of the field tandem Murphy-Schmidt, such as the trial of the Srpska president in Muslim Sarajevo, the expansion of the blacklist due to participating in the celebration of the Republic Day, the obstruction of direct Čović-Nikšić-Dodik agreements, the seizure of public property of a `smaller entity,` politically conditioned rapid progress towards the EU and similar things," said Kecmanović. However, as he points out, there is no doubt that Putin's electoral triumph has the effect of strengthening the self-confidence of Srpska and Serbia, as well as the belief that they are on the right side of history. According to his assessment, Putin's victory itself, even this convincing, is not a surprise, because all polls indicated Putin's great popularity, while the opponents were nearly unknown, at least outside of Russia. "However, the victory, with the support of nearly 88 percent of the voters, is true triumph. It is the result of Putin's spectacular achievements both as commander-in-chief and in diplomatic activities locally. At the beginning of his fifth term, he has already affirmed himself as the world's leading statesman of the 21st century, regardless of, with a few exceptions, weak competition," said Kecmanović. Commenting on the importance of Putin's victory in relation to the circumstances in which it was achieved and its impact on global trends, Kecmanović assessed that Putin's great electoral triumph represents no less a defeat for the collective West. "Their self-fulfilling forecasts about rebellion in parts of the country with a non-Russian population, about mass protests by the opposition in Moscow and Petersburg, and about the defection of some garrisons in Ukraine, have fallen into disrepair," Kecmanović pointed out. He pointed out that the greatest miracle of Putin's policy was the amortization of unprecedented Western sanctions in dozens of packages that were supposed to economically destroy the Russian Federation, but he turned them into incentives for the development of local industry and returned them to the sender's address. "In the end, it turned out that the European part of the collective West imposed sanctions on itself, especially Germany, which deprived itself of Russian energy resources necessary for the leading European industry. In the end, the vast majority of countries in the world did not join the sanctions," said Kecmanović. He emphasized that this miracle of statesmanship is intensively studied in the West, just as military schools teach a new way of warfare with minimum mobilization of manpower and limited use of superior missile weapons, with maximum effects. "Of course, for peace and stability in the world, changes on the other side are also necessary, and that is why the focus is on the USA elections, Biden-Trump duel. The latter has long expressed respect for Putin and is already seen as a successful negotiator," concluded Kecmanović.