Stefan Markovic slipped and stumbled on Belgrade’s icy streets and cursed both the Russians and the Ukrainians for the bad air he’s breathing.
“Those damned Soviets!” he shouted. “First they destroyed us with their communism. Now they create more misery. They even poisoned the air we breathe.”
A thick cloak of smog choked the capitals of Serbia, Bosnia and Hungary this week as residents and businesses resorted to burning oil, wood and coal — anything that might help them ward off the midwinter chill amid a natural gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine that has cut off supplies to Europe.
PHOTO: AP
EU Energy Commissioner Andries Pielbags and Czech Industry and Commerce Minister Martin Rima were expected to attend a summit on the Russia-Ukraine gas war in Moscow yesterday afternoon, said Tomas Bartovsky, a spokesman for the Czech EU presidency.
Moscow has called on European leaders to attend the summit, but Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said the EU should speak with one voice.
Ukraine countered with by convening a meeting with European officials on Friday. Ukraine doesn’t oppose a summit but insists it not be in Moscow.
The dispute is now stretching into its third freezing week and the fallout has been severe: at least a dozen confirmed deaths, hundreds of factory shutdowns that could cost billions in lost productivity — and millions of people left to shiver in unheated homes.
As if trembling in subfreezing apartments wasn’t bad enough, a winter storm encased Belgrade in ice. Doctors urged the elderly to stay indoors, warning that their limbs could snap like firewood if they fell.
But bitter cold drove 70-year-old Marija Jovanovic onto the glistening streets.
“I cannot sit at home and shiver,” she said. “Walking keeps me warm.”
In Bosnia, Serbia became an unlikely savior by sharing some of its own precious gas supplies.
No one missed the irony: Sarajevo froze during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, when Serb forces laying siege to the city shut off its gas, water and electricity.
A week ago, Boris Tadic, Serbia’s Sarajevo-born president, personally intervened and arranged for an emergency gas delivery.
But there was a potentially deadly side to the gift. Authorities cautioned that there could be explosions if residents didn’t properly relight heating systems.
Within hours, the first blast dampened Sarajevo’s newfound relief. Five members of the Hadrovic family were injured, including 44-year-old Amy Hadrovic, who suffered burns so severe she had to be brought to a clinic in Germany for skin grafts.
Rabija Ljutovic, 72, wasn’t taking chances.
“I called the gas company and will wait for their team to come and turn this thing on for me,” she said. “No need to blow myself up.”
Across eastern Europe, the crisis hit businesses and factories already pinched by the global recession.
At the usually bustling Munja battery factory in Zagreb, Croatia, there was only silence. Machines were turned off earlier this week after Croatian authorities decided they’d better switch off gas to industry and keep people as warm as possible in homes and schools.
“The workers are at home. Where else would they be?” said Ivan Miloloza, the manager, whose factory is losing 2 million kuna (US$370,000) a day. “There is no production, so we sent them home to wait, to rest.”
“We’re like a hotel at peak season that has its fridges full of food, but no stove to cook on,” he said. “It’s worse than during the war.”
Bulgaria, the poorest member of the EU, may have suffered the most. Even before the gas stopped flowing, the 27-nation bloc had frozen millions in funds to pressure the ex-communist country to clean up rampant crime and corruption.
Twice in the past week, angry Bulgarians demonstrated outside parliament in the capital, Sofia.
On Wednesday, dozens were injured, including 14 police officers, when demonstrators hurled stones and bottles.
“I want this government to resign because it cannot guarantee my basic needs — a normal salary, a heated home and safety for my family,” said Ivan Nenov, a 56-year-old Sofia electrician.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion