Another Yugoslav parallel

A British journalist friend living in Belgrade  was told by his taxi driver that Yugoslavia was an EU before the EU. He is a very keen believer in the EU and didn't  find this parallel made him cheerful. It does me. 

Yugoslavia was the embodiment of a post-national state, as was the USSR. The USSR was called Russia by foreigners but it was not the Russian empire renamed. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a greater Serbia but Communist Yugoslavia was not.

Multi-ethnic states only work if they are federal and power is very diffused, as in Switzerland. Even then Yugoslavia didn't - and Belgium is a mess.