A multi-media conference on the occasion of 20th anniversary of the NATO bombing campaign against the FR of Yugoslavia was held on 21 March in the Presidential Suite of the International Press Centre "Rossija Segodnya", co-organized by the Centre and the Embassy of Serbia.

Conference participants included Serbian Ambassador Slavenko Terzic, President of the Academy for Geopolitical Problems Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, Professor at the Department of Comparative Political Science at MGIMO of the Russian Foreign Ministry Dr Yelena Ponomareva, President of the Historical Perspective Foundation Natalia Narochnitskaya and presenter od "Pravo glasa" (Right for Voice) on TVC channel Roman Babayan. A documentary "Bombing campaign in figures" made by the Office for Kosovo and Metohija of the Government of the Republic of Serbia was screened ahead of the conference.



Ambassador Terzic emphasized that NATO aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia was illegal and relentless, creating a dangerous precedent in international relations with far-reaching consequences. He gave a timeline on and spoke of the consequences of a 78-day NATO bombing campaign and recalled the situation after KFOR was deployed to Kosovo and Metohija and following expulsion of more than 250,000 Serbs, demolition and destruction of monasteries, churches, vandalizing and razing down of Serbian cemeteries.



According to Natalia Narochnitskaya, the bombing of the FR of Yugoslavia introduced the practice of occasional total violations of international law and legalization of "humanitarian interventions."

Presenter of "Pravo glasa" programme, Roman Babayan who was in Serbia during the bombing campaign, spoke of his personal experiences and the propaganda war waged by the West against the FR of Yugoslavia.

Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, head of the Defence Ministry's international cooperation department said that this tragedy had a sobering effect on the Russian people.