Lesson from Ukraine: Stop Appeasing Russia’s Trojan Horse, Serbia

History of failed appeasement in Southeast Europe

epa08112386 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (3-R), Russian President Vladimir Putin (2-L) and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R) and Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov (L) attend the opening ceremony of the Turkstream Project in Istanbul, Turkey, 08 January 2020. TurkStream will directly connect the large gas reserves in Russia to the Turkish gas transportation network, to provide reliable energy supplies for Turkey, south and south-east Europe. EPA-EFE/TOLGA BOZOGLU

History can help Western leaders draw lessons from the past, which could aid-conflict prevention in Bosnia and Kosovo.

The UK government long ignored warnings about Vladimir Putin from its former defence attaché, for economic reasons, benefiting from becoming a tax haven for Russian oligarchs.

Similarly, Western governments ignored warnings about Serbia's leader Slobodan Milosevic and his team, such as the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, Bosnia.

A few years later, appeasement of Serbia was again attempted at the Rambouillet talks on ending the conflict in Kosovo, providing autonomy for Kosovo, which the Serbian government rejected. Humanitarian intervention then followed in 1999 with NATO bombarding Serbia.

Appeasement was also attempted in the case of Russia, before the war began in Ukraine, underestimating Putin's political beliefs.

Mistakes need to be learned from this history, and applied to the region's current destabilizer, Serbia, Russia's closest ally, to prevent another war like the one in 1999.

The local context has shown that the autocratic leaders often are supported and appeased by the Western community for their own national interests, be they...