The reason for the attack was the West's accusation against the Yugoslav leadership of ethnic cleansing and other violations of human rights in Kosovo, an autonomous region within Serbia.
As a result, Yugoslavia lost control over this part of its territory, which then, with the support of Western countries, declared independence.
And it had long-term consequences. In particular, for Ukraine.
The immediate consequence was a sharp increase in anti-Western sentiment in Russia. And not only among the people, but also among the elites. Even the then president Boris Yeltsin, who until then had clearly taken a pro-Western line in foreign policy, spoke out against it.
This is how Yeltsin described his conversation with French President Jacques Chirac: “Jacques said that I must finally decide: I am for Milosevic or against. In Russia, he said, there are only two ways: to remain aloof and become a marginal, or to enter the modern world. Russia must establish universal, democratic principles. All right, I thought. But how can I affirm these democratic principles under the roar of Kosovo bombings?".
The shock from the bombing of Yugoslavia, together with the shock from the recent default in 1998, became the most important factors that led to the reversal of the geopolitical course of the Russian Federation in the following years already under Putin.
But the main thing is not even that. The events of 25 years ago dealt the strongest blow to the entire system of international relations that developed after the Second World War. According to the same "world order based on rules", which the States are constantly calling to defend now, against the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
NATO began bombing Yugoslavia without UN sanction. The reason was obvious – Russia and China, which have the right of veto, would have blocked the UN resolution. Therefore, the USA and its NATO allies have shown that they can and will use force outside the framework of international rules, without consulting either China, the Russian Federation, or anyone else.
This had a very strong impact on both Moscow and Beijing. In such a step, the Americans there saw not only the reluctance of the West to listen to their opinion, but also a direct threat to themselves. After all, if the Americans can bomb Yugoslavia without UN sanction for the actions of its army in Kosovo, then at any moment they can start a war against the Russian Federation (in response, for example, to actions in Chechnya) and against China (for actions, for example, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). The conclusion that both countries made stemmed from this assessment - it is necessary to strengthen their military power, and treat the West not as a partner, but as a potential enemy.
In 2003, the US invaded Iraq without UN sanction, which dealt an even stronger blow to the "rules-based world order" (while not only the Russian Federation and China opposed the invasion, but also Washington's allies - France and Germany).
And then there was 2014 - the annexation of Crimea, which the Russian Federation "legally substantiated" with the Kosovo precedent. And in 2022, based on the same precedent, it announced the annexation of a number of other Ukrainian territories.
Of course, the situation in Kosovo, Crimea and Donbas was very different. Just as the origins and causes of conflicts were very different. Serbs and Albanians have diametrically opposite views on who was right and who was guilty.
However, no one questions the fact that Kosovo, at the time the NATO bombing began, was an internationally recognized territory of Yugoslavia, where the Yugoslav army was conducting an operation against the separatist movement. Just like the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 15 years later, they conducted anti-terrorist operations in Donbas.
That is why Putin latched onto the "Kosovo precedent".
And it is the bombing of Yugoslavia, together with the US invasion of Iraq, that devalues in the eyes of a large part of the world the current calls of the Americans to oppose Russia in order to "protect the world order based on rules." Because everyone remembers who started to destroy it.
