A fragment of the “last interview” of the former president of Yugoslavia is popular on the Internet, in which he calls for the “Russians” to remember the events in the Balkans and beware of the West. We checked the reliability of such an attribution.

March 2, 2014 in the issue of the Vesti Week with Dmitry Kiselev on the Russia-1 channel Reasoned About the approaching anniversary of the bombing of Yugoslavia. Before showing a report from Belgrade, Kiselev proposed a “fragment from the last interview with the last president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevich.” “True, there are skeptics who believe that the words of Miloshevich do not belong, but it doesn’t even matter - the meaning of them is so bright and so accurate that they can’t peel them away from Milosevich!” - said the host and read out a quote: “Russians! I am now addressing all Russians, residents of Ukraine and Belarus in the Balkans are also considered Russian. Look at us and remember - they will do the same thing with you when you deal and give a slack. The West - a chain rabid dog - will grab your throat. Brothers, remember the fate of Yugoslavia! Do not let you do the same with you! Why do you need Europe, Russians? It is difficult to find a more self -sufficient people than you. This Europe needs you, but not you in it. There are so many of you - as many as three countries, but there is no unity! You have all your own: a lot of earth, energy, fuel, water, science, industry, culture. When we had Yugoslavia and we were one, we felt like a great force that could turn the mountains. Now, because of our stupidity, nationalism, unwillingness to hear each other, Yugoslavia is no longer. And we are acne on the political map of Europe, new markets for their expensive junk and American democracy. ”

In the summer of the same year, the scandal erupted around the Moscow Cinema "Illusion", in the lobby of which Placed poster with the image of Milosevich and this quote (however, the poster is quite fast Removed).

The statement attributed to Milosevich is popular to this day. It is regularly published different Publics On VKontakte, users Facebook, Twitter, "Yandex.Zen" And other social networks, and the records themselves often gain hundreds and thousands of likes and reposts. In an abbreviated form, the quote from Milosevich is also given by sites with collections of aphorisms, including Citaty.info, Citaty.net And "Pearls of thought"as well as a number of media, for example "Express Gazeta" And "Komsomolskaya Pravda". In 2017, the expression attributed to the policy I used it In his entry on Facebook, the ex-prosecutor of the Crimea and former State Duma deputy Natalya Poklonskaya.

Slobodan Miloshevich, who in 1997–2000 held the post of president of Yugoslavia, is one of the controversial figures in the history of the late XX century. This can be seen even by encyclopedic articles about politics. So, "Big Russian Encyclopedia" Writes About his “attempts to prevent Kosov’s exit from Serbia” and how “in conditions of systematic breakdowns by Kosovo Albanians of negotiations and the unfolded so -called liberation army of Kosov’s military operations, resorted to power methods of resolving the conflict.” In turn, in the article of the encyclopedia Britannica It is said About the “Serbian nationalist policy, which contributed to Miloshevich, which contributed to the collapse of the Socialist Yugoslav Federation”, drawing Serbia into conflicts with other Balkan states, the struggle against confederalism, repressions against political opponents and an order to conduct “ethnic purges among Kosovo Albanians”. 

Be that as it may, during the aggravation of the conflicts of the Serbs with the Kosovo Albanians, NATO in the spring of 1999 Spent The bombing of Yugoslavia, and already in June, Milosevich concluded a peace agreement with the Alliance and agreed to withdraw Serbian troops from Kosovo. The next year, he lost the presidential election to Voislav Koshtunitsa, and in 2001 he was arrested by the Yugoslav government. He was transferred to the UN International Criminal Criminal Tribunal in the former Yugoslavia, which brought Milosevich an accusation of crimes against humanity, organizing massacres and violent deportation of ethnic Albanians. The ex-president was detained in a prison in the Hague, he abandoned the lawyer and independently led the defense. Due to the constant problems with Milosevich’s health, the consideration of the case was constantly delayed. The verdict was never passed - the former head of Yugoslavia died in prison in 2006.

Neither we, nor our colleagues from others publications They could not find authoritative sources in Russian that would give a quote from Milosevich about a “chain frantic dog”. Although the situation in Yugoslavia in the late 1990s and the subsequent lawsuit against Milosevich also focused on foreign journalists, “appeal to Russians” was not given by any major foreign media. Moreover, it is not mentioned at all in the search results of Google when requesting keywords in English. In turn, the earliest results of the issuance, available in Russian, date back to the beginning of 2014, and links lead to sources that can hardly be called reliable (among them, for example, a blog platform Pikabu).

Judging by the search on social networks, for the first time, the quote became widely known in October 2012, 11 years after the arrest of Milosevich and six years after his death. The first entry in "Live magazine" appeared October 7, in "VKontakte" - October 8, on Facebook - October 9. Subsequently, the text became popular in other social networks.

The first publication on VKontakte entitled “Hello from the Former Yugoslavia”, which was often given by the users of this and other social networks, was especially widely dispersed on those days. Now the public, where a note is placed, is called the "offensive of New Russia", but before the name was different: in May 2012 group It was called “Russia, Ukraine and Belarus: the Slavs against Nazism, fascism and their accomplices of Bandera from OUN-UPA, we are for the historical justice and unity of our fraternal peoples”*, and not later than May 2013 changed The name is “Russia, Ukrainian, Belarus: Patriots vs the OUN UPA”*. In other texts published in this group, about ten times tells about a non -existent plan of Dulles, almost as often - about "Protocols of the Zion sages".

In the text, which was widely spread in social networks in October 2012, there are two important details. Firstly, only a third of the quote, which was read on the air of Russia-1, Dmitry Kiselev, and which was later placed on the poster in the “Illusion”, was attributed to Milosevich. A fragment, starting with the words “Why do you need Europe, Russians?”, Believe the author, belongs to a certain Dragomir Miloslavich from Podgorica, and not at all to the ex-president of Yugoslavia. Secondly, the VKontakte, Live Journal and Facebook is signed-a certain Les Ivaniv is indicated as the author.

This name and surname are found in several sources in Ukrainian. For example, in 2007, in the newspaper Narodnaya, which was published by the People’s Party of Ukraine, I went out The article “Hero City, Martyr City: On the 64th anniversary of the liberation of Kyiv”, the author of which is Les Ivaniv. Judging by the Work.ua website, which is used to search for work, this is a creative pseudonym for Ukrainian journalist Alexander Voronin - he himself reported About this in the announcement. The article on the authorship of Voronin was published in the "People's" together with the authorship of Lesya Ivaniv.

We found Voronin's page on Facebook and sent him questions about whether he really wrote the text “Hello from the former Yugoslavia” and, if so, in what source he found a quote from Milosevich. At the time of publication of this material, Voronin did not answer our questions.

Thus, the statement attributed to the former President of Yugoslavia became known only a few years after his death. We did not succeed in finding an interview, during which Miloshevich allegedly made a statement about the “frantic chain dog”, and outside the Russian -speaking segment of the Internet, this phrase is given in single and extremely dubious sources. Apparently, for the first time the statement was attributed to Miloshevich by Ukrainian journalist Alexander Voronin in his text, published under the pseudonym Les Ivaniv and who became popular in the fall of 2012. Moreover, sometimes people who bring this quote mistakenly use a larger option, two -thirds of which belong to a friend of Voronin from Podgorica.

*"Ukrainian rebel army" (UPA) Applied The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the list of prohibited organizations.

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

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