Bilt: Putin behaves like Milošević

Former Swedish Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to former FRY President Slobodan Milošević, reports the Patria News Agency.

Bildt compared the attitude of Russian President Vladimir Putin towards the deployment of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine to the attitude of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević towards the deployment of peacekeepers in eastern Slavonia, which he sees as a model for resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

In his article, published by "Danas" on Tuesday, Bildt stated that a solution for Ukraine would be to deploy a peacekeeping mission in Donbas to ensure the return of displaced persons who left due to violence and to facilitate the reintegration of the region into Ukraine, which would ensure the full implementation of the Minsk agreements.

- And quite similarly to Russian President Vladimir Putin today, regarding the Ukrainian issue, the then President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević claimed that the issue could only be resolved through direct negotiations between the Serbian separatists and the Croatian Government in Zagreb, according to Bildt's text.

Bildt also stated that separatist forces in Ukraine depend on Russia's finances, just as Serbs in Croatia depended on Slobodan Milošević's government.

Bildt also stated that Putin is waiting for the fall of Petro Poroshenko's government in Ukraine and for the West to divide on the Ukrainian issue, and that then "perhaps Putin will be ready to take the initiative against Ukraine, to ensure the outcome he has long desired." Bildt added that if "the Ukrainian government and the West remain united," the separatists from Donbas could become a threat to Russia itself, writes Beta.