According to WSJ, Companies from China and Russia, Belgrade's closest allies, and businessmen from countries not bound by U.S. and Western European restrictions on investment, such as Israel, see the embargo as a chance to get a jump on Western rivals and secure a toehold in what many analysts consider the Balkans' most promising market. Interests range from rebuilding flattened oil refineries to making a grab for Serbia's largest brewery. Even though the European Union recently decided to fund the construction of a bridge on the Danube linking Romania and Bulgaria as part of a road link between Turkey and Western Europe that would bypass Serbia, no lasting Balkan peace and development is possible by pretending that there can be a permanent black hole in the midst of the peninsula. Swedish, Greek and Israeli executives, among others, are well aware of the fact that the present situation is both temporary and unnatural. Even American firms do not want to be left behind and several Treasury Department investigations into possible sanctions-busting by U.S. companies or individuals are under way.
Pressure can work both ways.
This position is remarkably similar to our own conclusions, contained in a report on The Rockford Institute team's visit to Serbia and Montenegro last January and issued last month. The views such as ours are gaining currency around the world. Sanctions are a weapon of mass destruction.