Ruins of Yugoslavia: How Russia learned that NATO poses a threat
The US-led military bloc’s illegal strikes on Belgrade in the spring of 1999 forever changed relations between the West and Moscow FILE PHOTO. Building ablaze after the NATO bombing on April 2, 1999, Belgrade, Yugoslavia. © Yannis Kontos/Getty Images On March 24, 1999, student Elena Milincic was at home with her sister and a friend in Belgrade. Suddenly, the quiet evening was interrupted by an air-raid siren. The girls quickly hid under a table. It wasn’t the safest place, but they had gotten lucky – their part of the city wasn’t attacked. Over the next 77 days, these girls and other Belgrade residents became better at hiding from the bombs which threatened to kill them every day. The raids were part of NATO’s military operation against Yugoslavia – a campaign that shook up the world order, and not just in the Balkans. Preconditions for bloodshed The Kosovo problem goes back many centuries. Located in the southwest of Serbia on the border with Albania, the Kosovo region was histori