DANGEROUS GAME OF THE PRESIDENT OF SERBIA: Vučić's vaccines, "soft power" and Russia's interests in BiH

Somewhat later, the official confirmation of that arrives from Moscow. Dodik obviously knows what he is talking about and has good sources in Russia. No wonder, but it is interesting that the prompt rejection from Russia for vaccines arrived after a sharp public debate on the rhythm and manner of BiH's entry into NATO.

Writes: FARUK KAJTAZ

Let's understand each other immediately! I am not a supporter of any conspiracy theories or similar nonsense, which unfortunately a good part of the world prefers to swallow as “truth” instead of being guided by common sense and facts.

Such manipulations are not only stupid, but also terribly dangerous. How much? We could see best when the frantic "elite opponents" entered the US Congress recently.

However, when it comes to BiH and the process of "immunization of the population" or, to put it popularly, vaccination against the corona virus, several things are so neatly arranged in the timeline of causes and consequences that it could hardly be a mere coincidence.

To begin with, if we remove the word theory from the phrase "conspiracy theory" and deal with the facts, we come to a seemingly somewhat strange but important question: Is BiH consciously pushed into the state it is in and why such a "conspiracy" might suit someone?

Let me state at once: World solidarity, if it ever existed, has disintegrated on the issue of vaccines. Rich and influential countries first broke the rules and then a stampede ensued. To some everything, to many - nothing!

The thunderously announced COVAX disintegrated like a soap bubble.

Money and influence determined the flows of the vaccine trade. Everything else was a story for the naive. Pharmaceutical companies have calculated and calculated. The money started to flow and few asked for the price. It started to be played by all the rules ... dirty.

And where is BiH with all its absurdities, internal illogicalities and crises? BiH is practically at the beginning. Everything that the vaccine has come to our country so far is just a drop in the ocean of our needs. More symbolic or for emergencies. There is no real vaccination in sight.

Why?

A complex question requires the same answers.

We are partly to blame - there should be no dilemma, but let's look at a few things from a broader perspective.

When it became clear that COVAX was dead, more countries remembered Russian and Chinese vaccines. Among them is BiH. The first quantities arrived, as expected, in RS. Somewhat later, a couple of thousand Russian Sputnik vaccines reached Sarajevo. And how!

They were brought by Aleksandar Vučić - personally!?, Which is not unimportant in this whole story. "Vule" quickly picked up numerous points both in BiH and in Serbia and the region. He is the one who helps, when it's the hardest… is the message that goes into the world as a subtext of Vučić's painting from Sarajevo.

Our proverbially sluggish administration and government remembered that vaccines could be procured from Russia as well, when COVAX was already functioning poorly. The FBiH government is quickly forming expert teams, money has been found, and half a million vaccines have been ordered. Russians.

Serious attempt. But somehow at the same time, a dispatch from the Embassy of the Russian Federation arrives at several important addresses in Sarajevo, in which it criticizes BiH's attempt to speed up and secure its entry into NATO in a rather untwisted and by no means diplomatic way !?

The answer of the "authorities" follows in the style, "Russia will not determine for us whether or not we will join NATO".

Then comes a day of uncomfortable silence, and Dodik's statement in Vuicic's company that "there is nothing" from the purchase of half a million vaccines for FBiH from Russia.

Somewhat later, the official confirmation of that arrives from Moscow. Dodik obviously knows what he is talking about and has good sources in Russia. No wonder, but it is interesting that the prompt rejection from Russia for vaccines arrived after a sharp public debate on the rhythm and manner of BiH's entry into NATO.

In this way, did Moscow want to practically improve its geopolitical position in BiH and the Balkans through a single medical preparation? Blackmail BiH? Offer vaccines to change policy?

These questions will, of course, never be answered publicly, but as I said earlier, some things coincide dangerously in this story. Just like the assessment of the member of the Presidency of BiH, Željko Komšić, that the West reacted "lukewarmly" to the threat from Russia to BiH.

And then when it became clear that Russia has no intention of selling us vaccines, here is Vučić again, that is, Serbia to come to the rescue!

Practically out of nowhere, the news is spreading in Bosnia and Herzegovina like a fire about how people can be vaccinated in Serbia, and beware now - without citizenship, the necessary consents and only on the basis of an online application!

Vučić (if there are too many) could put those vaccines back on the plane and send them to BiH, but the citizens of BiH had to come to Serbia on their own in this development.

On a kind of vaccination pilgrimage to Serbia!

All countries in Europe are jealously guarding the stock of vaccines for their population, only Serbia - it is vaccinating its neighbors without money and dinars !?

Where is the logic here? Fraternal help or geopolitics again?

Where does Serbia get so many vaccines that practically anyone can get vaccinated around them, without compensation, don't we count the costs of people who went to Belgrade? Good questions, but for now, again - no answers.

If we calculate the number of vaccinated foreign citizens in Serbia with the average price of the vaccine, we come to the conclusion that this move cost Serbia in the worst case some million dollars !?

The real profit from the realization of soft power in the region is at least ten times higher! If Vučić had hired some kind of lobbying group, the price would surely have been much higher, and the results certainly so successful.

It is a classic - school demonstration of exercise and implementation of the so-called. "Soft powers" of Serbia in the region, which is most visible from the statements of gratitude of some of those vaccinated at the expense of "hateful Vučić" and Serbia until yesterday.

Thank you Serbia…, but that's not all.

On the news of the departure of an increasing number of BiH citizens to Serbia, suddenly there is some Pfizer vaccine from the famous COVAX program for BiH. Several tens of thousands, they say, of the "best vaccines", arrive at the airport in Sarajevo, with a suitable welcome for the ambassador and the diplomat.

Is this the West's response to the "soft power" of Serbia and Russia's related interests in the Balkans through vaccines? Again there is no answer, but the timing (again) is more than interesting.

Let's go to the end and say publicly: The hybrid war in BiH is already going on for a long time! By all means, even vaccines, if necessary. And now it needs more than ever. It’s vital, actually.

The biggest winner is Serbia, because it "buys kajmak", due to the fact that, who knows how, it procured vaccines, which even the much larger and richer countries failed to procure !?

What's the "trick"? Was Serbia smarter, faster with more "cash" or did "someone" in the, apparently wild vaccine market, decide to give Vucic additional weapons for a hybrid war in the Balkans?

BiH is a collateral victim here.

A kind of geopolitical hole in which each of the big and regional players puts their interests and plans without caring too much for the interests of the citizens and the state itself. No matter what is said about it in public.

It is a hybrid war operation, which had two goals: To strengthen the soft power of Serbia in the Balkans and "wash" this country in the eyes of the citizens of neighboring countries, and to point out the dysfunctionality and unsustainability of the current BiH constitutional regime.

To change, but in such a way that, in essence, through "federalization" we go in the direction of further disintegration and dissolution of the state, all under the guise of new initiatives and new realities.

The role of leader was obviously intended for Serbia in the whole story, so it was necessary to wash Vučić and his team at a certain gathering under an umbrella on the "European path".

It would be a kind of multilateral "deal" in which everyone would get their share of the "cake". Sorry vaccine.

The announced "little Schengen" is just the beginning of that story, and the episode with the vaccines only further strengthens the idea of the need for "cooperation", if necessary at different speeds on the "common path".

As a kind of "training ground" for the region for EU and further integration.

And "wolves" are full and "sheep" are numbered! For Belgrade .... with the company Krstić, sorry - Vučić ....