Rumours of a Russian base in Serbia reflect Balkan hysteria, not reality

@Slobodna Vojvodina
Your nick is revealing your anti-Serbian bias and your comment is confirming that.
Let me simplify Milosevic’s policy in one sentence.
“to keep all Serbs in one country.” Emphasis is on “to keep” since all Serbs did live in one country at that time, Yugoslavia. When other nations wanted to split away drawing some imaginary borders, this policy now makes perfect sense to me. Comparing Milosevic to Hitler who sent his armies far away from his nation’s ethnic space is absurd.
Back to topic, maybe American or Russian army bases have some hidden geo-strategic value to those nations (e.g. defending oil pipelines) for Serbs this is all about Kosovo. Kosovo is the cradle of Serbian state, medieval capital and head of Serbian Church. Russians so far share this view with Serbs and that’s why they are in favourable position. This can easily change in the future. In my opinion Serbs are willing to join NATO (opposing Russian suggestions) for some sort of trade off regarding Kosovo, most likely split of the province alongside ethnic lines. That’s why Russian base is not reality but it’s a good bargaining chip.

@Semsedin Semi

Kosovo was a cultural, religious and at some time political capital of the Serbian medieval State (Nemanjic dinasty used Pristina and Prizren as their capitals). Some of the most famous and sacred Serbian (not Byzantium but Serbian) orthodox monasteries and churches are built in the Kosovo region - the Patriarchate at Pec (1250), Visoki Decani (1327), Gracanica (cca 1321), etc. The Patriarchate at Pec (Pecka Patrijarsija) was a major religious center during Serbian Tsar Stefan Dusan who made it the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1346.

On other side there is no evidence or data of mosques/churches built by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians. All of the mosques used today by the Albanians were built by the Ottoman Turks during period between 1440 and 1860.

Kosovo is not a country, its only recognised by a few other as such. Who really cares anyway if Russians have a base in Serbia? If one is there its to protect whats theirs, and they have have been given an invite. Its not like the excuses made to go to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Some people need to move on. The Cold War Is Over, get used to it.

Romania anounced it has accepted american missile interceptors that will be operational by 2015. The move was agreed by all political parties, except for Iliescu who asked for a referendum. Mr Iliescu was lately revealed to have visited the soviet embassy in december 1989 to ask for a military soviet intervention in Romania, but the soviets fortunately refused. :)

The Russians can't have a proper military base in Serbia because the country is almost completely cut-off by NATO countries, so the Russians will lack a supply route there. If there was a crisis they won't be able to use it and if they had 1000 military personel there they would be in effect NATO hostages.

Gas supplies however are a completely different story
As for intelligence... please, all Balkan countries are swarming with Russian spies at all levels including business and politicians. Many of the strong men want Russian influence because it means lawlessness and corruption which will only provide them with ever more money and power (at the expense of the country and its people but who cares).
If the West had it their way, that would mean law and order and the present powerful people will only stand to lose

Even the Economist calls these rumours "hysteria, not reality", so that tells you something.

Well, for some Russia-haters, including many of the active commenters here, rumours like that are always a reality.

I think the base in Serbia is a answer to NATO aggressive policy (rockets in Romania). And it's absolutely right.

Didomyk...please note that your lies will not be tolerated...since when was Kostunica "pro-western"? and the truth about Ukrainian pipeline conflict correct version is that the “orange” Ukraine was steeling Russia’s supplies straight from the pipeline, designated for other European countries.

Generated3505609:
Do you have a source for this misinformation of whereabouts the Serbs – any historical event has only one true version but unfortunately 1000 of self-serving misinterpretations.

The concept of a Russian base in Serbia may well have deeper roots indirectly tied to Balkans' dependence on Gazprom-controlled gas transmission lines. Let's remember that Putin had already used Gazprom as a weapon during the Serbian revolution. There was this $400 milion old debt by Yugoslavia to Gazprom that had never been an issue during Milosevic years in power. But after the pro-Western Voislav Kostunica was sworn in as the new president Putin decided that there must be a price to be paid and Gazprom was ordered to cut off all gas supplies to Yugoslavia.

Shortly after he took office Kostunica had to pay a visit to Putin's Kremlin office begging to resume gas supplies. Putin ordered Gazprom to resume gas deliveries but made sure that the new masters in Belgrade were fully aware that there will be time for a payback. Putin demonstrated that he did not need to send Russian divisions into the Balkans, all he had to do is to flip the switch and let the Serbs and their neighbours know that he means business.

A few years later Putin used the same strategy against Ukraine totally ignoring the fact that millions of people in other European countries were faced with freezing in the dark. That blackmail strategy is likely to be repeated once the North Stream and the South Stream gas pipelines are in operation.

Well, could somebody tell me how well-known is the rumour in other Balkan countries, especially in Kosovo, please?
Also, I'm wondering how Albanians in Kosovo or Macedonia feel about the rumour even if it is false. I hope it doesn't have any bad impact.