Russia Exposes NATO’s Destruction of Serbia’s Civilian Infrastructure in 1999

Dec. 2, 2022 (EIRNS)—The Russian Embassy in London published a tweet on Nov. 30, quoting from 1999 NATO spokesman Jamie Shea, stating: “70% of #Yugoslavia is without electricity. It shows we have our finger on the trigger and can turn electricity on & off where we need it & where we want it, “ justifying NATO’s destruction of Serbia’s civilian infrastructure, thereby exposing the hypocrisy of the same NATO insisting that it is “terrorism” when Russia targets the infrastructure Ukraine’s military relies on, not least to deploy NATO weapons. Included in the tweet is a photo of the May 4, 1999 New York Times feature, “NATO Air Attacks on Power Plants Cross a Threshold,” which itself quotes the following exchange at Shea’s press conference:

“Question (Norwegian News Agency): I am sorry, Jamie, but if you say that the Army has a lot of back-up generators, why are you depriving 70% of the country of not only electricity, but also water supply, if he has so much back-up electricity that he can use because you say you are only targeting military targets?

“Jamie Shea: Yes, I’m afraid electricity also drives command and control systems. If President Milosevic really wants all of his population to have water and electricity, all he has to do is accept NATO’s five conditions and we will stop this campaign. But as long as he doesn’t do so we will continue to attack those targets which provide the electricity for his armed forces. If that has civilian consequences, it’s for him to deal with but that water, that electricity is turned back on for the people of Serbia.”

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (in Russian) likewise quoted from the Shea press conference on her Telegram account, in a message “To Stoltenberg, Borrell and Belodomovsky for memory....”