‘President Bush was to meet Friday with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and then sign so-called accession protocols paving the way for the two former communist nations’ final membership in the military alliance.’

The news came shortly after Spain promised Georgia that it would have a friend in the European Union when Spain becomes it leader in 2010.

It seems that NATO could very well expand further east in the coming years, much to the aggravation of Russia, no doubt.

It is, nonetheless, the right decision and path to follow. Russia showed earlier this year that it is more than willing to use force in order to dominate eastern Europe. Moscow has always tried to bully its neighbors, and their neighbors, into obedience, but the West’s response seems to be that the bullying has to come to an end.

One can only hope that the United States will continue down this policy of containment of Russia and expansion of NATO when Barack Obama becomes president.

©2008 PoliGazette. All Rights Reserved.

Below are a few snippets of this lively discussion, all translated from Russian.

LJ user iraan reported from Kosovo on Feb. 15:

[…] In Kosovo, everyone is promising independence - even this hotel ad.

A picture of a roadside ad for a hotel in Kosovo's capital Priština accompanied the post; the ad read:

INDEPE
NDENCE

HOTEL AFA IS READY

On Feb. 17, the day Kosovo declared independence, LJ user iraan wrote:

…Priština. Today
…celebrations are in full swing here already. Here you go, my dear ones

In the comments section, she later added two photos of happy-looking men waving Albanian flags. LJ user cqdx - who served in Kosovo (RUS) as part of Russia's peacekeeping mission, but is currently based in Geneve, Switzerland - noted:

[…] If at one point Yeltsin's Supreme Council hadn't chickened out and instead accepted Serbia as part of Russia, there wouldn't have been today's [orgy] in Kosovo. […]

In another Feb. 17 post, LJ user iraan made this observation about the flags she was seeing in Kosovo's capital:

…there are more stars and stripes in Priština than even the black eagles. It is obvious who the papa is and who is directing the process.

LJ user vikrussia left this comment:

How sad. I am speechless. There was hope until the very last moment. And now there's only one thought in my head: this is what they are going to do to us, too - “in a civilized manner,” [pretending to observe principles] of “legality” and “law.” The Slavic world has died. God has turned away from us. We have to figure out what for.

Serbia-based LJ user sanielisse wrote this on Feb. 19:

I've been reading and watching the news non-stop for the second day in a row. […] Kosovo, an independent state?
On Friday and Saturday, they began sending SMS's - “pray fro Kosovo… […]”
Where were you before? Why didn't you pray every day in Serbian temples for the rescue of Kosovo and its relics, and its Serbian people?
A female student at the university declared to me today: “I want to live and not to think about Kosovo…”
It's easy to sell your past. But then you'll be walking through a swamp.
After these words I joined the protest rally with my friends. My heart was aching…
Is this a protest, or a funeral of Kosovo, or a holiday? Not very clear… God, what can one understand here, in Serbia, when the president declares, “Be peaceful…” How could those who carried out the pogroms on Sunday night stay peaceful if the country's heart and soul had been torn out?
And if today you stopped those who were yelling “Kosovo is Serbia's heart” and asked WHAT IS KOSOVO, would many of them have an answer?
And no one but [Bishop Artemije] has mentioned that it's not just an attack on Serbia. It's a new blow to Orthodox Christianity.
[Abkhazia's Sergei Bagapsh] and [South Ossetia's Eduard Kokoity] said beautifully today: Serbia is a country well-established politically, it's not in turmoil, and a piece of it is being cut off only because two ethnic groups look at each other through gun muzzles… And what can be said about Georgia, a country that isn't well-established yet, which is permanently on fire, and into which North [sic] Ossetia and Abkhazia are being squeezed? […]

LJ user dreamy_tanger left this comment:

[…] Why wasn't your heart aching when [Slobodan Milošević] organized the genocide of Albanians and Bosniaks? Was Orthodox Christian “compassion” an obstacle? As for Kosovo, there's no use worrying about it anymore, it has not been part of Serbia de facto for a long time, now at least they'll be obliged to observe minorities' rights as an independent state.

LJ user drugoi, on Feb. 16, posted five photos of the pre-independence celebrations in Kosovo, titled his post, “Farewell, Serbia?” - and received four pages of comments. Here are some of them:

drakon_1 [Israel-based]:

Hurrah!!!

dtxysq [Russia-based]:

Hurrah?

sergey_sht [Ukraine-based]:

He doesn't live in Kosovo.
“Freedom and land to Palestine!”

drakon_1:

Palestinians, too, should have a state of their own, with clearly defined borders - I don't see any contradiction in this.

sergey_sht:

Albanians also should have a state of their own with clearly defined borders. But for some reason they want Kosovo, too, just like Arabs want Jerusalem.

Don't you understand that it can't be just ‘We want it and that's it.' It's not as simple over there.

dao_b [Russia-based]:

Russians also should have a state of their own with clearly defined borders. But for some reason they want a small Russian republic on the territory of Moldova, too.

Don't you understand that it can't be just ‘We want it and that's it.'

***

polinsky_yard:

[…] Well, good luck to them.
Why are we saying farewell to Serbia as if it's something that belongs to us? We have no more rights for it than Americans.

terskiy_kazak:

Oh-oh, are you serious?! [Count with me]: faith, language, history… Damn, we are the same people with Serbs! It's somehow awkward to even discuss this subject: it's like proving that the Earth is round…

LJ user shupa (originally from Belarus, currently based in Prague, Czech Republic) wrote this in the yugo_ru LJ community, whose focus is on “culture, history and literature of the former Yugoslav states”:

Someone has reminded us here today: “I'm reminding you that Kosovo is a historically Serbian territory, which, in the past half a century, has become dominated by Albanian population.”

What kind of term is that - “historically XXX territory”? If we start looking for all the historical territories and all those who are occupying them now, then Russians should be kicked out from behind [the Urals] or even closer (definitely [Smolensk], [Prussia], [Ingria]). And I'm not even talking about [the Americans]. Anyway, let's all return to the borders of the 14th century, when [the Grand Duchy of Lithuania] stretched from one sea to the other :)

The most important thing now is for them not to start killing one another again. As for all this screaming - we are not giving Kosovo away, Moscow is behind us - these are indeed [calls to action]. There must be plenty of them on the other side, too, only we don't see or hear them, and “the other” side isn't really advertising them. […]

LJ user michail wrote this:

[…] Serbian [dear brothers] deserve our sympathy, of course. But, honestly, would all that's happened be possible if Serbs hadn't exchanged their resistance will for the sweet promises of the Eurocommissars? One's gotta pay for “the European choice.” […]

I suspect that we need the proverbial solidarity with [dear Serbian brothers] more than Serbs do. I haven't forgotten yet that the [Russian mass awakening] began with the [1999 NATO bombing of Belgrade]. We were throwing stones at the U.S. embassy then and singing [Kosovo Front] all together - was it in vain? Cannon fire in Serbia awoke the Russian bear, ridding him of a whole package of the most dangerous illusions of the 1990s. […] And, thank God, it was someone else's war that served as a catalyst for national awakening. […]

LJ user michail ended his post with a video of a Corsican band “L'Arcusgi,” which included a Corsican female singers' performance of “the famous ‘Hegoak' - a patriotic anthem of [the Basque Country].”

Israel-based LJ user aristocrate was not sincere when he congratulated Europe on the birth of its “new child”:

I congratulate Europe with a new child - Kosovo!

And since the EU has so happily supported the unilaterally declared independence of a new Muslim state on its territory, I'm also wishing it to have many, many more kids: independent Catalonia, Corsica, Wallonia, Flanders, the Basque Country, Wales, and, somewhat later, Normandy, Ruhr, Gascony, Wallachia, Prussia, Sicily, etc.

You deserve it, idiots. […]

LJ user varfolomeev66, a Russian journalist, was “more concerned” with the fate of Russia than with that of “the USA and the leading European states. He wrote:

I'm trying to understand: our diplomats and those who sometimes listen to their recommendations - are they fools or enemies?
I'd like to have a look at the authors of the thesis on the “precedent-making nature of Kosovo case,” about which Putin and [Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov] have been talking incessantly for the past few months. Do they understand what they are doing?
I assume they […] were trying to intimidate Europe and America this way: like, Wales and Montana will follow Kosovo's example. But [they] ended up prescribing treatment that's worse than the disease itself.
The president, who has called the unilateral separation of Kosovo a precedent, has given [freedom to act] to our own, home-grown separatists. If, for example, Ingush, Karelian or [Primorye] comrades decided to split from Mother Russia, they would remind those who'd try to stop them that Putin himself had shown them the way! Wasn't it Putin who said that other peoples may follow after Kosovars - and we are following them!
[…]
Instead of emphasizing the uniqueness of the Kosovo case along with the countries of the West and talking of the impossibility of repeating it, our regime is voluntarily provoking our own secessionists. […]

LJ user freetatarstan - which is actually a “journal for those who support the idea of independence of [the Republic of Tatarstan]” - wrote:

KOSOVA!

Remember how some observers used to assert that as soon as Russia starts being nice to Abkhazia and Ossetia in response to Kosovo's independence, the national autonomies of the Russian Federation will raise their voices as well…
Well, what can you say to this… We wouldn't want to disappoint them… […]

Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia on Sunday, Feb. 17, has caused both celebrations and protests - as well as plenty of media coverage and an avalanche of blog posts.

Below is a selection of some Anglophone bloggers' views (Elia Varela Serra's earlier Global Voices roundup on Kosovo is here).

Prishtine: Independence and Kanun is celebrating and taking “tons of pics” (but hasn't posted any of her own yet):

I-DAY is Here!!!

Less than 2 hours away from the eventual announcement. I wish I could feed you a live video feed but I am not that tech savy … It's a regional party and apparently, everyone is invited. […] No politics talk today. I just want to be happy for a people who seem happy. […]

***

REPUBLIC OF KOSOVA!!!

[…] and the party is on…. please, be careful with the “happy shooting”. […]

Living in Shkoder and Stepping Stones report on the celebrations taking place in Albania.

Ed Alexander of Balkan Baby writes:

[…] Today is a celebration, a country is born. Kosova has played its part with the utmost of humility and today is a reward and recompense for the trials which preceded it. There will be countless problems which the new Republic of Kosova will encounter but there is no doubt that with the same determination that has brought them independence anything can be overcome. There will be time for analyses in coming days, but for now, as is always the case with events that truly define our history, it is best to watch them unfold. […]

Viktor Marković of Belgrade 2.0 reports on and posts video footage of the rioting in Serbia's capital:

Except for the broken windows, destroyed public property in front of the [U.S. embassy] and several mildly bruised antiriot policemen, due to the stones and flares throwing, nothing big happened. Group of mostly younger people, probably football hoolingans, tried to enter the embassy at one point, but all they managed to do is to break all the windows and a gate.

[…]

Slovenian embassy is, as I understand from the news, heavily damaged.

Viktor is also posting updates on Twitter; here's one of the latest mini-reports:

McDonallds restaurant destroyed, some reports say hooligan groups heading towards mosque […]

Here are some of Viktor's earlier reflections on Kosovo's independence:

[…] Our prime minister says that European Union, together with the US will “kidnap” a part of Serbia. But the reality is, Kosovo is not going anywhere, Albanians are not really going to take the part of the land and carry it over to a whole different place, as the word “kidnap” suggests. The border will stay where it was, with probably the same crossing fluency. Monasteries will stay where they are, hopefully. The name will change, instead of “Kosovo province” it will become something completely different – are you ready? wait for it… (drumroll) – “Kosovo”.

But the biggest question remains as it has been for the last eight years – non-Albanians’ safety and the right to live and move freely in Kosovo. In the future, this issue will be the responsibility of Albanians only, since our prime minister and our politicians have done very little to show that they care about the people as much as they care about the territory, monasteries and the name. […]

Jasmina Tešanović, guest-blogging at Boing Boing, writes:

[…] Last week in Geneva, I talked to a young Albanian blogger. He told me: this time “independence” will be declared for real, because it is not our independent decision but that of the world community. Nobody asks us anything anymore. They just give us orders and set rules.

Most young Serbian people have never visited Kosovo. There is nor reason to go to Kosovo if you are not trapped in Kosovo already. It is a hard place. Since the fall of national Yugoslav radio and television, Serbian has fallen out of use there. The Serbs never bothered to learn Albanian.

[…]

The last sentence in my 1999 diary was: I hope they don't build a wall. Today I must say the same: I hope the Serbian population in Kosovo survives, and I hope they don t build a wall: them, us, their armies, our armies, foreign armies.

[…]

May it be a beginning of new era; may our children never have another war with their neighbors just because they speak a different language and have a different sign on their graves. The Balkans have always been a multiethnic territory. No matter who wins the battle, nobody will be able to win a war.

Alan Jakšić of Balkan Anarchist is worried about the fate of Kosovo Serbs, too:

[…] Personally, I'm mostly worried about the Kosovo Serbs, my fellow ethnics in the province who live as a beleaguered minority. I hope that they will stay in the province and maintain links with the perhaps soon-to-be reduced Serbia, and not leave in great number from their homes and villages. However, I have seen on the news that the UN is already prepared to offer aid to these could-be future refugees in the north of the province.

One idea I heard the Serbian president Boris Tadić mention is a possible Kosovo Serb parliament to represent all the Serbs in the province. I think this could be a good idea, as such an institution could make the province's Serbs feel represented by a major institution whose members they would be able to elect. And as such, it could provide Serbs with the reassurance they need to stay in Kosovo. […]

Eric Gordy of East Ethnia writes:

[…] Some people will undoubtedly be celebrating the event, but it will take serious and committed work to assure that the new situation means something more than jobs for a new crowd of politicians. I am neither thrilled nor outraged, but rather think that what matters most is how the problems that have been left from the past and the new ones that are going to be generated are going to be addressed. Kosovo and Serbia are both now states, and each one has the opportunity now to show that it has the capacity to behave like a responsible one. […]

Dejan of Anegdote is being serious in a non-serious kind of way. He has re-posted a photoshopped image of PM Vojislav Koštunica as a contestant in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? quiz show (uploaded from a Serbian-language forum with a mystifyingly telling name of Parapsihopatologija - “Parapsychopathology”) - and has translated the question and four answer choices:

Kosovo is…

A. Serbia [Koštunica's pick]
B. independent [correct answer]
C. less than independent
D. more than autonomous

Hugh Griffiths, on his B92 blog, explains why the current rioting in Belgrade may signify the “imminent departure” of PM Koštunica:

[…] For the first part, shouting offensive remarks about Albanians while crying “Kosovo is Serbia” in one breath, and support for mass murderer Ratko Mladic in the next is a general blow to the “international law” themed PR that's been doing the DSS rounds. Burning cars, attacking police, smashing traffic signs and punching journalists while waving the Serbian flag does no favours to what some refer to as the “branding” process and others call “national pride”.

[…] what really signals Vojo's imminent departure, bar some more wailing, is what the ne'er do-well flag wavers were chanting.

“Save Serbia and kill yourself, Kostunica”

[…]

Why this should worry the current leader of the party of international law, is that despite pandering to the views of ignorant extremists, Kostunica has lost their support. And by betraying the DS over not endorsing Tadic for president, Kostunica has finally irrevocably alienated the more decent with whom he was in coalition with. […]

Having made his premiership about hanging onto both Kosovo and [Montenegro], and failing to do either; making enemies out of all these king-makers means that he will be removed in the not too distant. Unlike Djindjic, this will be a democratic process, but history will be none too kind.

In an earlier post, Hugh Griffiths writes about two rallies that took place in Belgrade last week, prior to Kosovo's declaration of independence:

[…] The latest two demonstrations in Belgrade continue to present a vision of two very different Serbias. The first, on the February 11 would not look out of place in any European capital: a civic procession with peaceful purpose, smiling faces but a serious message, cheerful whistles and drums, good humour and witty posters. A pretty girl kissing a policeman. Good street theatre in a capital city moving forward.

This was a youth demonstration in support of Serbia's integration into Europe, an event backed by more than 70% of Serbia's population and a majority of those who bothered to vote in the presidential elections, despite the Kosovo red herring.

Then there was a second protest on 16 February. Around 1000 people demonstrating for the Kosovo red herring. A small, yet violently vocal group of misfits. […]

In the comments section to this post, one Serbian reader (badreligion) responds:

neither of two is mine

Both rallies represent extremes, and I find it hard to identify with either.

I just wonder why do all the foreigners see us Serbs so black and white? It seems one has to shout his head off or blow his bollocks through the wistle to be heard… There are some quiet and disgusted people here as well, you know. Those are people who are pro EU and against independent Kosovo.

Lucy Moore, on her B92 blog, criticizes John Bolton, former U.S. representative to the U.N, for a remark he made at “The Implications of Kosovo’s Independence for U.S. Foreign Policy” event in Washington, D.C., last Friday:

Calling Kosovo’s pending independence a “fundamentally European solution,” he noted that independence for Kosovo came out of not one but two instances in which the authority of the U.N.’s Security Council was largely dismissed — first in NATO’s 1999 air strike and now in the current failure by the international community to back a change in Kosovo’s status with a U.N. resolution.

And in a moment of bold directness, Bolton told any European citizen sitting in the audience to take this message back to Europe:

“It should be a long time before any of you criticize action without Security Council authorization.”

Wonderful. South Eastern Europe is again on the cusp of destabilization. What democratic headway Serbia had made has been kicked into reverse. Europe must now find a way to incorporate an economic wasteland into its already strained folds. And all Mr. Bolton — once America’s voice at the UN — has to say is America may have F*ck up but we're not alone. […]

Douglas Muir of A Fistful of Euros comments on Kosovo's prospects of being recognized internationally:

[…] As for international recognition: somewhere between 20 and 30 countries are poised to recognize Kosovo pretty quickly, with a larger number inclined to recognize but planning to wait a bit. There’ll probably be a UN Security Council meeting next week, which will lead to much discussion but nothing concrete.

So, unless Serbia does something stupid — which is certainly possible — in the short run, not much will change. In the longer run, well, I’ve used the phrase “Balkan Taiwan” before. It’s not very close; really, Kosovo is unique. But I expect a long war of diplomatic attrition rather than a crisis. Again, we’ll see soon enough.

Mark MacKinnon writes about the precedent-setting element of Kosovo's independence and the “Pandora's Box” effect it may lead to in Eastern Europe - and, as a reader points out in a comment, elsewhere in the world:

[…] My point here is not to argue for or against independence for Kosovo. But I do find myself wondering how the United States and the European Union find it reasonable to argue that the Kosovars deserve the right to determine their own fate, Serbia be damned, but other peoples of Eastern Europe in similar situations do not.

If Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence is going to get the support of the international community, let's make the right of national self-determination the new global standard. Let's set about determining the real will of the Abkhaz and the South Ossetians and back open and fair (not Russian-sponsored) referendums on whether they want to remain in Georgia. Then let's help them enforce the results.

Hell, while we're at it, let's do the same for the Transdniestr, the Respublika Srpska , Chechnya and the Crimea. If we're going to open this Pandora's Box in Eastern Europe, let's open it all the way. […]

While MacKinnon mentions Russia's foreign ministry's allusion to Abkhazia and South Ossetia in its last week's statement on Kosovo's independence, James of Robert Amsterdam's blog reports on Vladimir Putin's remarks on Kosovo and Spain's Basque and Catalan regions:

When Russia speaks out against recognizing Kosovo's independence, there are quite a few feathers to ruffle among other EU members that have separatist issues of their own. It appears that President Vladimir Putin struck a chord in making the Spanish comparison. […]