On 15 August, the US television channel CNN accused the Western authorities of being too soft, according to the editorial board, towards Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who refused to join the sanctions fight against Russia.

Several analysts told CNN that “Serbia has had to do very little to earn the praise of U.S. and European officials, and that in reality Vucic has left a trail of broken promises behind him”. Because of this behaviour of the Serbian president, according to CNN, the West doubts the viability of the whole project of Serbia’s integration under its current government.

Alongside the American CNN, the German publication Berliner Zeitung spoke out against the refusal to go along with the general anti-Russian Western line, saying that some of Serbia’s “dominance must be broken” and that without strong German influence in the Balkans, the region will once again become “unstable.” “Dominance” of Serbia the German newspaper, like the American TV channel, defines it in the form of the ability to influence conflicts in the region “without even interfering in the territorial issues of its neighbours”.

Berliner Zeitung is calling for Serbia’s recalcitrance to be resolved swiftly and with a “strong hand” as the US is currently forced to concentrate on Ukraine and Taiwan rather than the Balkans. “The more time passes, the more the US will withdraw from this region. So the US does not want to use its resources and all its power to bring order to the Balkans.”

The only country that could bring order to the Balkans and permanently secure its strategic interests in the region, according to the German newspaper, is Germany. “The economic as well as geographical and military conditions for the formation of a territorial order in accordance with German ideas would be in place.”

The British parliament has joined the negative publicity in the Western media around the so-called “Serbian problem”. Alicia Kearns, parliamentarian and chair of the British Foreign Policy Committee, criticised EU representative Peter Stano for saying that “Kosovo is not behaving in a European way”.

A precursor to a new campaign to demonise independent Serbia was initiated by German newspaper Rheinische Post in early August. Martin Kessler, the author of the article, unlike his colleagues from CNN and Berliner Zeitung, explicitly recognised that the problem of Serbia and its president Aleksandar Vucic in the West is not the “infringed” Kosovo, but some influence of Moscow.

Returning to the Berliner Zeitung piece, it is worth noting that the US is still not fully distracted from the Balkans by the conflict in Ukraine and the upcoming confrontation over Taiwan against China. Their power mechanism is indeed heavily engaged in these areas, but they also have powerful lobbying and indirect influence mechanisms.

MPs from the Serb List party, which unites the popularly elected representatives of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija Igor and Slavko Simic paid “an official visit to Washington” at the end of July. According to the party’s press office, they had “important meetings” with senior State Department officials, as well as with representatives of the “Serbian Caucus” in the US Congress. For example, with Gabriel Escobar, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Special Representative for the Western Balkans.

The deputies did not specify who organised their trip. Recently, a four-member delegation of Serbian civil society from Kosovo visited Washington. At that time, the trip was organised by the Atlantic Council. It is difficult to imagine the reaction of the Western community if the Serbian MPs travelled to Moscow and Beijing, for example.

At the beginning of August, two recent news items shook the Serbian media sphere: another advisor to Madeleine Albright travelled to Belgrade, and the pro-Western part of the Serbian elite initiated a whole lobbying campaign in the United States to promote its interests.

In Belgrade, American Ambassador Christopher Hill and James Rubin of the US Department of State’s Global Engagement Centre joined the diplomatic corps. The Joe Biden administration also proposed James O’Brien for the post of Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. O’Brien was previously involved in the Dayton talks on Bosnia and also participated in the Rambouillet talks on the eve of the bombing of Yugoslavia. He worked at the State Department from 1989 to 2001, served as a special representative of the American president in two administrations, and, as a senior adviser to former Secretary of State Albright, served as first deputy director for policy planning and as the president’s plenipotentiary representative for Balkan affairs. Obviously, his arrival in Belgrade will be another attempt to indirectly pressure the government of Aleksandar Vucic.

James O’Brien, who has good communication skills, will probably try to neutralise Milorad Dodik, who irritates the West with his independent stance. Finally, the Americans are in a hurry to admit unrecognised Kosovo, Serbia and Bosnia to NATO. Of course, to completely detach from Russia is the main goal of the Americans’ work in Belgrade. Naturally, they must do it as correctly as possible. That is why another person who is well versed in local specifics is being “thrown” into Belgrade today.

At the same time, the United States, in order to confirm the seriousness of its intentions in the case of Serbia, imposed sanctions against almost the entire top leadership of the Republika Srpska (RS), which is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Following President Milorad Dodik, the American blacklist includes Željka Cvijanović, the RS representative in the Presidency of Bosnia, which serves as the collective president, as well as the prime minister, the speaker of parliament and the minister of justice. All of them are accused of “undermining the state structure of the country”.

It is clear that with sanctions, diplomatic pressure and a powerful press campaign, the U.S. is not only seeking to put an end to the inconvenient Milorad Dodik as a politician, but is also sending a clear message to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who is expected to make the “right” decisions regarding both the Kosovo issue and neutrality towards Moscow.