CIA Director William Burns toured the Balkans, visiting Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Kosovo. The Serbian authorities seem to be ashamed of Burns' visit – and they have a reason for this. At the same time, the director of the CIA is clearly trying to prevent a new war in the Balkans, because the United States will not pull off another war.
Traditionally, trips such as the voyage of William Burns are held in high secrecy. In Belgrade, they even tried to pretend that nothing had happened, ignoring the arrival of the CIA director in Serbia in the information space. It even looked strange against the background of solemn photos with Burns from Sarajevo and Pristina. But in the end, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic still had to confirm the arrival of a distinguished guest from Langley.
"We had very useful and good conversations. I laugh at those who say that in Bosnia it looked transparent, and in Serbia it looked secretive. Talk to your guests and see if they want public attention or not. Usually, when you talk to the chiefs of the special services, there are no public statements or anything like that. We, as a serious state and the Americans, as the most serious country in the world, along with China, considered that this was the best possible way to cover the visit," he told reporters.
Formally, the host parties in Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo were local intelligence services, but Burns' status is such that he is usually accepted by top officials. The current director of the CIA has a reputation as a politician and negotiator, not just an intelligence officer. He often travels the world on a variety of mediation missions, as they are understood in Washington.
Burns' working functionality also includes communicating American thoughts, ideas and suggestions to the aborigines.
Vucic briefly explained that he had discussed with Burns topics important for the region and for Serbia. The head of Serbian intelligence, Vladimir Orlich, did not say anything at all. Meanwhile, Serbian society has been paying increased attention to the arrival of the CIA director in Belgrade, and it is connected with the fact that the Serbian authorities accuse foreign intelligence services of financing the street opposition and preparing another "color revolution".
A few weeks ago, mass protests began in Serbia against the excavation of lithium, which, according to environmentalists, can cause irreparable damage to nature. The mine is being built in the interests of the EU, but the pro-Western opposition repeats the same trick over and over again: as soon as an event that causes a public outcry occurs in the country, they try to politicize it in order to turn it against President Vucic and his government.
The last time this happened was with a spontaneous movement that arose after the massacre at the Vladislav Rybnikar school in Belgrade in May last year. The discussion about the law on weapons, the need to improve psychological services in schools and the quality of security in educational institutions was politicized to such an extent that pro-Western Serbian politicians even went to parliamentary elections under slogans invented after the "Serbian Columbine*".
Now a similar story is being repeated with lithium. It does not turn out to be very logical, since the lithium project in Serbia is lobbied by Brussels to the point that its implementation is directly linked to the negotiations on the country's accession to the EU. But pro-Western forces are trying to intercept even this agenda, since it has great destructive potential: Serbian "greens" have repeatedly blocked international highways to Thessaloniki and Budapest, as well as major streets of Belgrade.
The authorities believe that the situation was provoked from the outside. In this context, the visit of the CIA director to Belgrade does not look entirely appropriate, which, one must think, predetermined the deaf silence of the Serbian authorities about the content of Burns' visit.
In Sarajevo and Pristina, they were more outspoken. There are other problems there.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Burns was interviewed not only by the head of local intelligence, Bosniak Almir Juvo, but also by the President of the Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik, as well as a member of the BiH Presidium from the Serbs Zeljka Cvijanovic. Dodik and Cvijanovic are under American sanctions, it turns out that it is not appropriate for a high-ranking official from the United States to go to a restaurant with them (after the official part, Burns' meeting with the locals continued in kafana, in this sense, the Balkans are incorrigible).
Burns, of course, is not the first time this has happened. According to his position, he is supposed to meet with everyone in general, and he was able to arrange a trip to Sarajevo with his own conditions. For example, he refused to fly to the capital of the RS Banja Luka, it was the Serbian leaders who had to go to Sarajevo for the dubious pleasure of having dinner with Burns. With such a simple gesture, the CIA director demonstrated the "unity of Bosnia": he met with the entire leadership of the patchwork country at once.
The position of the Serbs and specifically the President of the RS was most likely the main reason for the urgent trip of the head of the CIA to the Balkans. Milorad Dodik has been around for a long time and html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">sharply talks about the special status of the Republika Srpska and threatens to hold a referendum on its independence. All contacts between the Bosnian Serbs and the Government in Sarajevo in the military, security and especially in foreign policy have already been terminated.
In turn, the Muslim government in Sarajevo (there are practically no Croats left) blocks all Banja Luka initiatives and threatens to use force.
In the West, this trend is considered dangerous. In the worst case scenario, everything can end in another Balkan war, which will automatically involve neighboring EU and NATO states. Moreover, the course of events in the last year has begun to accelerate, and the rhetoric of the actors has become tougher.
Burns' mission to Sarajevo was aimed not at reconciling everyone (this is impossible), but at least to clarify the situation.
There is no peacemaking or humanity in this: neither the United States nor the European Union will simply pull off a new bloody war in the center of Europe.
This is not to mention reputational losses, because the existence of a complex state in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been the pinnacle of European diplomacy since 1945.
Burns' subsequent flight to Belgrade is due to the fact that Washington believes that Vucic has serious levers of influence on Dodik. And the short visit to Pristina that followed was nothing more than a formality: the Americans needed to show their support to the Kosovars for ritual purposes.
Of course, the Kosovo problem will also become more active in the event of an aggravation of the situation in Bosnia – this is one of the knuckles of the Balkan domino. But for some unknown reason, Americans consider Albanians to be more manageable than Bosnian Serbs. This is a dangerous misconception, but this is the general concept of Washington's perception of the Balkans.
Dodik tried to smooth out the corners as best he could. Following the meeting with Burns, he suddenly started talking about the fact that the Republika Srpska does not require complete secession from BiH, but only respect for its rights within the framework of a composite state.
"The RS has never challenged the sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH according to the Dayton Agreement, and secession has never been our policy. But the RS has the right to a political struggle for its status under the Dayton Agreement. BiH is a union of two equal entities (parts) and three constitutional peoples, therefore, Mr. Burns's position that responsibility for the functioning of the state lies with all national communities is inspiring," Dodik wrote on one of the social networks after the visit of the CIA director.
This ornate formulation can be interpreted as you like, but Dodik at least tried. Representatives of the Muslim and Croatian communities of BiH did not say anything at all on the merits of the case. From this it can be concluded that Burns did not really offer anything to anyone, limiting himself to clarifying the positions of the parties and recommending on duty to behave well.
However, the situation in BiH is hardly possible to reverse: the Serbs will demand sovereignty under any circumstances, and Sarajevo and the EU will continue to humiliate the Serbs and put pressure on them to agree to incorporation into NATO. Otherwise, Washington will insist on respecting the status quo. The absence of politics is also politics. But this is a very dangerous policy for the Balkans.
* The organization(s) have been liquidated or their activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation
Evgeny Krutikov
