The Voice of Russia - Yelena Guskova, PhD (history), the head of the Centre for Analysing Contemporary Balkan Crisis at the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
"On the 24th of March 13 years ago, a spate of NATO bombs was dropped on a peaceful European country. The March-June 1999 aggression against Yugoslavia, carried out under the pretext of the alliance's concern for the plight of the allegedly deprived Albanian population of Kosovo and Metohija, lasted for 78 days.
"In reality, it was a brutal punishment for Belgrade's refusal to cooperate with NATO, waive its sovereignty and replace its long-standing leader Slobodan Milosevic."
