In 1999, Russia was among the most vociferous critics of Western air attacks on a maligned dictator. Today, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visits the site of those bombings in Belgrade, little has changed.
Putin, who on March 21 condemned the air and missile strikes waged by the U.S. and its allies in Libya as a “crusade,” will meet Serbian President Boris Tadic on the eve of the 12th anniversary of the launch of an air bombing campaign in Yugoslavia by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Libya intervention risks souring ties between Russia and the European Union, which accounts for 54 percent of the country’s trade, with Putin holding the reins of power before 2012 presidential elections that may return him to the Kremlin. Russian opposition to the 78-day offensive aimed against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic prompted a rift with the West, leading the country to suspend cooperation with NATO in 1999.
“Putin is very, very suspicious of Western activism wherever it happens,” Tony Brenton, U.K. ambassador to Russia from 2004 to 2008, said in a phone interview yesterday. “But there are huge distinctions between what happened in Yugoslavia, where we bypassed the Security Council, and what is going on in Libya, where we worked through the Security Council.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-22/putin-stokes-libya-crusade-spat-as-visit-recalls-nato-bombings.html
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