“Decisive moment for Tadić”

Serbia can do all it wants in reforming its institutions, kiss and make up with the Albanians, and stomp its foot on the ground all it wants screaming "we want to join the EU", but until it gets rid of the corruption, and its political to tycoon ties, it will be stuck in a rut of filthy business dealings, greed, nepotism, cronyism, and no future. Some in Serbia would love to have things remain as is, but the average citizen is going nowhere in improving their living standards, until "business as usual" changes in Belgrade.

This makes you wonder if Milosevic was better than these criminals in power? On the other hand anyone in power will be disliked by some... but these are very legitimate reasons to hate them. I mean, come on, the post 2000 period was about the robbing of the country... I don't see how anyone can embrace that.

I think that they should do stuff retroactively. Lets punish those oligarchs for doing bad things. There is no reason for letting things go. They should be punished and fined retroactively.

tadic out he is nothing, hes not smart either so get this clown out already.

This makes you wonder if Milosevic was better than these criminals in power? (Lazar, 17 February 2011 17:16) How is the pyramid scheme going that Slobodan Milošević when he was President of Serbia set up for his banking buddys. Every one must be rich by now you would think that one was a winner for sure.

Probably not as good as the pyramid scheme in Croatia that Tudjman set up, Lenard. His cronies must be very rich by now, while the average Croat citizen is battling for survival. Birds of a feather, flock together.

Probably not as good as the pyramid scheme in Croatia that Tudjman set up, Lenard. His cronies must be very rich by now,(winston, 17 February 2011 20:31) Good news winsome a lot of the cronies are serving some good time and others are being brought up on charges. Ours were equal opportunist they even bilked European banks out of 100s of millions in shady deals a lot of them still think they did not do anything wrong.

Lazar only somebody unable to think straight could wonder such a thing. Anybody who was around in the period, or indeed takes the most basic glance at Sloba's economic results at the time shows the only thing he was capable of was bringing economic catastrophe on the country. Really Lazar you might think and do some research, rather than sitting there 'wondering'. You might also want to remember that the 1990 decade was also about robbing the people, stealing from their houses, from their bank accounts, stealing from public companies for private gain etc. I can give you dozens of names of those involved in one of the greatest state sanctioned robberies in Europe under a 'democracy' since WW2.

This warning from Barac is good news. It means she is not afraid of bad mouthing Tadic during the election campaign if she feels he is not putting the tycoons in their place.

Its clear she knows (as does Tadic) that in the current economic situation anybody seen by the electorate as being in bed with the tycoons could lose hard. In a way its political interference of course which she has no legal right to do, but its for the greater good so who cares about that?

winston you have hit the nail on the head, part of the conundrum is how the Serbian people can rid the country of this cancer. They know that the government won't do it by itself, thus they are hoping against hope that the EU will manage to bring order.

The wealth of Serbian tycoons is estimated at between 12 billion euros (http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2010&mm=08&dd=08&nav_id=450441).

This bails in comparison to the amounts in the Milosevic era. Remember the post-2000 regime was going to task the ill gotten gain of Milosevic era tycoons. They were going to tax 4 billion euros of ill-gotten gain at 90%.

Remember what happenned then. Tycoons became friends with certain politicians and the 90% tax fell from an amount of 3.6 billion euros to some 90 million or so (mainly aimed at the Karic family).

Now, the highest estimates for theft under Slobo I've seen somes to a figure now corresponding to 20 billion euros. That is surely an exageration.

The 12 billion figurees some list as post-2000 theft I consider too low, the 31.5 billion I consider reasonanable (especially since the highest estimate I've heard if was 78 billion euros).

Essentially, Slobo was a criminal. The people after him are in monetary terms worst.

This makes you wonder if Milosevic was better than these criminals in power? (Lazar, 17 February 2011 17:16) How is the pyramid scheme going that Slobodan Milošević when he was President of Serbia set up for his banking buddys. Every one must be rich by now you would think that one was a winner for sure.

tadic out he is nothing, hes not smart either so get this clown out already.

This makes you wonder if Milosevic was better than these criminals in power? On the other hand anyone in power will be disliked by some... but these are very legitimate reasons to hate them. I mean, come on, the post 2000 period was about the robbing of the country... I don't see how anyone can embrace that.

I think that they should do stuff retroactively. Lets punish those oligarchs for doing bad things. There is no reason for letting things go. They should be punished and fined retroactively.

Probably not as good as the pyramid scheme in Croatia that Tudjman set up, Lenard. His cronies must be very rich by now,(winston, 17 February 2011 20:31) Good news winsome a lot of the cronies are serving some good time and others are being brought up on charges. Ours were equal opportunist they even bilked European banks out of 100s of millions in shady deals a lot of them still think they did not do anything wrong.

Lazar only somebody unable to think straight could wonder such a thing. Anybody who was around in the period, or indeed takes the most basic glance at Sloba's economic results at the time shows the only thing he was capable of was bringing economic catastrophe on the country. Really Lazar you might think and do some research, rather than sitting there 'wondering'. You might also want to remember that the 1990 decade was also about robbing the people, stealing from their houses, from their bank accounts, stealing from public companies for private gain etc. I can give you dozens of names of those involved in one of the greatest state sanctioned robberies in Europe under a 'democracy' since WW2.

This warning from Barac is good news. It means she is not afraid of bad mouthing Tadic during the election campaign if she feels he is not putting the tycoons in their place.

Its clear she knows (as does Tadic) that in the current economic situation anybody seen by the electorate as being in bed with the tycoons could lose hard. In a way its political interference of course which she has no legal right to do, but its for the greater good so who cares about that?

winston you have hit the nail on the head, part of the conundrum is how the Serbian people can rid the country of this cancer. They know that the government won't do it by itself, thus they are hoping against hope that the EU will manage to bring order.

The wealth of Serbian tycoons is estimated at between 12 billion euros (http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2010&mm=08&dd=08&nav_id=450441).

This bails in comparison to the amounts in the Milosevic era. Remember the post-2000 regime was going to task the ill gotten gain of Milosevic era tycoons. They were going to tax 4 billion euros of ill-gotten gain at 90%.

Remember what happenned then. Tycoons became friends with certain politicians and the 90% tax fell from an amount of 3.6 billion euros to some 90 million or so (mainly aimed at the Karic family).

Now, the highest estimates for theft under Slobo I've seen somes to a figure now corresponding to 20 billion euros. That is surely an exageration.

The 12 billion figurees some list as post-2000 theft I consider too low, the 31.5 billion I consider reasonanable (especially since the highest estimate I've heard if was 78 billion euros).

Essentially, Slobo was a criminal. The people after him are in monetary terms worst.

Serbia can do all it wants in reforming its institutions, kiss and make up with the Albanians, and stomp its foot on the ground all it wants screaming "we want to join the EU", but until it gets rid of the corruption, and its political to tycoon ties, it will be stuck in a rut of filthy business dealings, greed, nepotism, cronyism, and no future. Some in Serbia would love to have things remain as is, but the average citizen is going nowhere in improving their living standards, until "business as usual" changes in Belgrade.

Probably not as good as the pyramid scheme in Croatia that Tudjman set up, Lenard. His cronies must be very rich by now, while the average Croat citizen is battling for survival. Birds of a feather, flock together.