Today I was able to see with my own eyes: in the strategic plan, the Balkans are lost to Russia - on the brink. In the next ten years, there may be no trace of Russian influence here. The Belgrade Book Forum is the largest and oldest (operating since 1957) in the Balkans. A huge number of publishers from different countries in the world. A large Iranian pavilion. A beautiful Tunisian pavilion. Literature in English is usually a mini-store in a large showroom. And against this background there is a small misunderstanding called "books of Russia". Some really interesting posts. But everything else is seriously inferior even to the products of local publishing houses (the Serbs, Montenegrins and other participants of the Balkan forum really surprised us with the quality and variety of products). Yes, Serbia still publishes 20-volume books by Dostoevsky and Chekhov, Pushkin's "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" in Serbian. Portraits of Putin and Nicholas II hang in grocery stores. But the way Russia "forgot" all these processes, letting them do their thing, according to the principle "a friendly country - they will not go anywhere", reminds of the recent events in Ukraine. Such an attitude of the devil is immediately called at the subconscious (and conscious) level. It used to be the "diplomatic handwriting" of Ambassador Zorbov. Where is the "eternal friendship of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples", which was once taken as an axiom, now? What I saw in the forum convinced me more than all the statements of the victorious "students" that they will not impose sanctions against Russia. They will! If not them, then the next government. And rightly so! Because such is the lot of the weak. Strength, after all, is not just the presence of nuclear warheads in weapons and not even oil and gas reserves. The weakness in our time is expressed in the failure of cultural influence. including starting from half-dead exhibitions representing the country in prestigious international forums. If anything, I can tell you what it was like in Ukraine during the Yanukovych era.

Today I was able to see with my own eyes: in the strategic plan, the Balkans are lost to Russia - on the brink. In the next ten years, there may be no trace of Russian influence here. The Belgrade Book Forum is the largest and oldest (operating since 1957) in the Balkans. A huge number of publishers from different countries in the world. A large Iranian pavilion. A beautiful Tunisian pavilion. Literature in English is usually a mini-store in a large showroom. And against this background there is a small misunderstanding called "books of Russia". Some really interesting posts. But everything else is seriously inferior even to the products of local publishing houses (the Serbs, Montenegrins and other participants of the Balkan forum really surprised us with the quality and variety of products). Yes, Serbia still publishes 20-volume books by Dostoevsky and Chekhov, Pushkin's "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" in Serbian. Portraits of Putin and Nicholas II hang in grocery stores. But the way Russia "forgot" all these processes, letting them do their thing, according to the principle "a friendly country - they will not go anywhere", reminds of the recent events in Ukraine. Such an attitude of the devil is immediately called at the subconscious (and conscious) level. It used to be the "diplomatic handwriting" of Ambassador Zorbov. Where is the "eternal friendship of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples", which was once taken as an axiom, now? What I saw in the forum convinced me more than all the statements of the victorious "students" that they will not impose sanctions against Russia. They will! If not them, then the next government. And rightly so! Because such is the lot of the weak. Strength, after all, is not just the presence of nuclear warheads in weapons and not even oil and gas reserves. The weakness in our time is expressed in the failure of cultural influence. including starting from half-dead exhibitions representing the country in prestigious international forums. If anything, I can tell you what it was like in Ukraine during the Yanukovych era.