The breakup of Yugoslavia: causes and consequences
At the beginning of the ХХ century there were significant events in the world that gave an impulse to the formation of new states and alliances. The Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires ceased to exist as a result of the First World War and the political processes that began afterwards. New states appeared on the map of Europe: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland and Finland. Some of them, having become important political centers, still exist today, and some of them were destined to disintegrate.
Yugoslavia from creation to dissolution
In 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes appeared on the Balkan Peninsula. They declared the principles of unity of the Slavic peoples in the Balkans, later denominated as Kingdom of Yugoslavia. At the end of World War II, Yugoslavia abolished the monarchical system and became the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, and then, in 1963, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of six republics: Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro and two autonomous provinces: Kosovo and Vojvodina. It is generally believed that the process of Yugoslavia's disintegration began in 1991 and lasted until 2006. However, as early as in 1970s, nationalist movements fighting for the local people rights and reforms gained strength. In 1971 the so-called "Croatian Spring" took place in Croatia, in the spring of 1981 - the riots in Kosovo, also known as the "Albanian Spring", the organizers demanded the withdrawal of Kosovo from Yugoslavia.
Over time disagreements continued to multiply, especially in political sphere, which resulted in a party split: the Union of Communists of Serbia was transformed into the Socialist Party of Serbia. In November 1990, the elections to representative bodies took place. The communists (socialists) managed to maintain their positions only in Serbia and Montenegro. In the rest of republics the bourgeois-nationalist parties linked to the West won.
The authorities of Yugoslavia tried to unite the republics: in January-March 1991 three meetings of the Presidium and a number of bilateral meetings with representatives of the republics were held. Various solutions to changing relations within the framework of the Yugoslav federation were considered there. However, the negotiations instead of helping to resolve existing disputes, showed the existing contradictions and conflicts. From that moment on republics began to declare their sovereignty, which resulted in civil war.
In June 1991 the parliaments of Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence, on September 8 a referendum for independence was held in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence in March 1992, and in April the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was announced in Belgrade as part of Serbia and Montenegro. Multiparty parliamentary elections were held and the Constitution of the new state was adopted. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia recognized the independence of all States of the former Yugoslav republics and announced it had no territorial claims against them. On June 3, 2006 Montenegro declared its independence and took a course of rapprochement with the European Union.
After the dissolution of the Yugoslav Republics, the territorial boundaries were generally preserved and six independent states were formed: Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, as well as the partially recognized state of Kosovo.
International organizations and Yugoslavia
The Balkan events expectedly caused concern of the international community. A number of operations was launched since 1992, involving the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union (EU), the Western European Union (WEU), NATO, and a number of other countries being participants of individual operations. For example, in order to monitor the ceasefire in Croatia, and subsequently to address humanitarian issues, the UN approved the peacekeeping mission UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Force) in February 1992. Over time, the mission's mandate expanded, having comprised protection of Sarajevo airport. For these means forces with military units from 40 countries were placed in Macedonia. The mission operated from 1992 to 1995. In March 1995, UNPROFOR was reorganized into three separate interrelated peacekeeping missions.
OSCE observer teams started to control the Albanian-Yugoslav border in Albania as Kosovo crises aggravated. The Organization also attempted to promote dialogue between the conflicting parties, but its actions did not produce any tangible result.
On December 14, 1995, Dayton Peace Accords came into force to resolve the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The document was signed by the Presidents of Serbia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The agreement provided for the entry of NATO contingent into the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Attempts to resolve the crisis through the mediation of international institutions only partly stabilized the situation in the Balkans, but did not eliminate the contradictions between the parties. In February 1999, in the Paris suburb of Rambouillet, through the mediation of the Contact Group, negotiations were held between the Serbian leadership and the Kosovo Albanians on the settlement of the situation in Kosovo. The Peace Plan was not later signed by the Serbian side due to the presence of previously unagreed positions: the expansion of Kosovo's autonomy and the introduction of a contingent of troops of NATO member states on this territory. The refusal to sign it served as a formal reason for the bloc to start the military operation.
Under the pretext of protecting the civilians in Kosovo, NATO states began bombing military and civilian facilities of Yugoslavia. The military operation was carried out without the authorization of the UN Security Council and lasted 78 days.
The bombing of oil refineries and petrochemical plants led to the contamination of the country's water system with toxic substances.
The operation ended on June 10, 1999, after the signing of an agreement between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO, under which the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from Kosovo began. On the same day, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1244, according to which the UN Mission in Kosovo and the International Security Force (KFOR - Kosovo Force) were deployed in Kosovo under the auspices of the UN. The maximum number of KFOR reached 50,000 troops.
Russia in the Balkans
The Balkans are a traditional sphere of Russia's interests, though during Yugoslav crisis Russia took a rather aloof position. Russia supported the preservation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until 19992, then, following the EU, it recognized the independence of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thereafter, Russia followed Western policy, repeatedly pointing out that the leadership of a number of Western countries violated decision-making procedures on the use of force in the international community.
The alliance's actions contradicted even the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, in which NATO countries pledged not to threaten international peace, security and justice, and to refrain from the use or threat of use of force in international relations if it was contrary to the purposes of the United Nations
The UNPROFOR mission was the first one to include Russian peacekeeping contingent of 884. After the end of NATO bombing and the entry of peacekeeping forces, Kosovo was in fact divided into five sectors (British, American, German, French and Italian). On June 12, 1999, a Russian battalion, during a forced march, occupied a strategic position - the Pristina airfield. However, Russia failed to get its sector. The units found themselves scattered in different areas and were unable to exert any influence on the situation, so their mission was canceled in 2003.
Civil wars in the former Yugoslavia and NATO aggression in Kosovo led to a huge number of casualties and large-scale destruction, as well as undermined security in the Balkan Peninsula for many years. According to a number of experts, if it had not been for the intervention of "well-wishers from the outside", the disintegration of Yugoslavia could have been avoided. In this situation, international institutions demonstrated their ineffectiveness and double standard policy: for example, every Security Council resolution on the Bosnian crisis repeated the need to preserve the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but in 2008, when the question of Kosovo's independence arose, the UN position was the opposite, the principle of self-determination of the people prevailed, despite the violation of Serbia integrity.
Disagreements between ethnic groups, external support of opposition movements, crisis of power - all these can be referred to the reasons for the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which took place almost at the same time as the Soviet Union collapses.
Today, the U.S. and NATO are firmly established in the Balkans, and the alliance continues to expand eastward and strengthen its influence, including through the integration of the former republics of Yugoslavia into international and military-political alliances.
