Russian television this past week has blasted viewers with 15-year-old footage of NATO bombing raids, burning buildings and wounded people in the Balkans to step up a media campaign against the West over the Crimea crisis.

State TV and newspapers have used the anniversary Monday of the start of the NATO bombing campaign to depict the West as hypocritical for arguing Crimea has no right to secede from Ukraine when the United States and its allies used force to help Kosovo escape former Seriban President Slobodan Milosevic's clutches.

A special TV program, titled "The Serbian Tragedy: 15 Years," hammered home Russia's message that the U.S. and NATO are to blame for redrawing global borders, encouraging separatism and flouting international law.