SVR/KGB Serbian-nationalist – this is all the same political and security infrastructure; ideologies serve passions in the Balkans, and the passions are co-opted by the state. In this case, the state is in reality the web you point to: organized crime (yes, very organized), military factions, leading politicians (who could not survive otherwise), and secret services. As you point out, Western-leaning politicians will only be tolerated long enough to throw the West a scrap and provide some evidence that Country X, Y or Z is struggling to evolve in a liberal republican direction. Once achieved, and the West’s attention is diverted – which after all doesn’t take very long – the internal web yanks the Westernizing puppet out of the picture, and a leader more in line with the underlying power structure restores their official power.
The fact that this general has been sacrificed, and that Mladic will probably be sacrificed, does nothing to contradict your analysis – what better way to proceed than to create a fetish out of some terrible criminal over the course of a decade, and then, when he becomes useless, give him up? That way you convert a liability – a war-crimes general – into an asset: evidence that your country is struggling mightily to purge itself of its institutional racism and evil nationalism.
Probably the same will happen with bin Laden when the conspiratorial powers of Asian, headquartered in the Kremlin, make the same decision. Unfortunately it may occur after another 9/11 here in the USA – or perhaps London. In fact, if I were a Lubyanka jihadi, I’d think London would be the best target…
