The City Celebrating Putin, Trump & a Notorious War Criminal
Those who committed unspeakable atrocities to assert Serbian power are remembered by some as heroes. So are Russia’s president and his buddy Donald Trump.
Anna Nemtsova
ANNA NEMTSOVA
07.20.17 1:00 AM ET
BELGRADE—The Serbian capital, Belgrade, often looks like “Putingrad,” with occasional splashes of passion for Trump. On these hot July days, a stroll around the Kalemegdan Park or Belgrade’s main shopping street, Knez Mihailova, reveals portraits of both men on the front pages of newspapers and magazines, on T-shirts, cups, flyers, and posters.
The worlds of President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin commingle in curious ways among the souvenirs. A popular T-shirt design that would leave Trump perplexed (and Sarah Palin infuriated) shows Putin in a pilot’s uniform with the caption: “Crimea is Russia, Alaska is Russia, Everything is Russia, except for Kosovo.”
Memories of the gruesome Balkan wars that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s remain strong and bitter. Serbia, which once sought to dominate the region, saw its power eliminated in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Kosovo.
Those who committed unspeakable atrocities to assert Serbian power are remembered by some as heroes. The 1999 NATO bombing campaign that finally forced Serbia to relinquish its hold on the province of Kosovo—now an independent nation that Belgrade will not recognize—is a memory that does not fade.
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