Mr Vojislav Seselj, the leader of the Radical Party and a Deputy Prime Minister, looked as if he had swallowed a canary. The extreme right-wing nationalist and erstwhile leader of the White Eagles militia, who "ethnically cleansed" much of Bosnia, had worked for years to achieve yesterday's propaganda victory - a vote by the Yugoslav parliament to join a loose union with Russia and Belarus.
Before the war started, Mr Seselj even travelled to Minsk and Moscow to meet like-minded Slavs, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, and the Russian politician Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Mr Lukashenko, it will be remembered, is so extreme that even the Russians had qualms about co-operating with him.
Yugoslavia obtained "permanent observer" status in the Russian-Belarus alliance at the end of January and, if its application is accepted, will now become a full member of the political, economic and - in theory - security alliance.
President Slobodan Milosevic's government had hesitated to join - what could two bankrupt countries in a limping, three-yearold union do for Serbia? Mr Vuk Draskovic's westward-leaning Serbian Renewal Party had also resisted Mr Seselj's campaign.
NATO's war has changed all that; Serbia needs all the friends it can get. Every evening, state-run television covers visits from foreign politicians and delegations who support Serbia. They include some of the same Western fringe groups who send "peace missions" to Baghdad. Mustachioed Russian Cossacks were in Belgrade at the weekend, offering to ride their horses into battle for Serbia.
Mr Milosevic did not grace the marble-columned, walnut-panelled assembly chamber with his presence - his power is based on the charisma of absence - but he pronounced yesterday's vote "a great and historic step for Yugoslav security". However, the parliament of rebellious Montenegro, the only other republic besides Serbia in the Yugoslav federation, pronounced it illegal.
Mr Seselj gloated as photographers and cameramen swarmed around him when he entered the debating chamber. "Everything came into place with this union", he shouted tauntingly at other members. "Everything is back to normal."
The Serbian prophet of Slav brotherhood was the only politician to address the assembly without notes, in a loud and clear voice. "We are making a long-term and important strategic decision in joining union with Russia and Belarus", Mr Seselj said. "Our future is in the east. The American bombs and missiles merely accelerated our decision. There is not a single Orthodox person or a single patriot who has not turned towards their Mother . . . Mother Russia thinks we are not alone in the world. NATO will break its teeth. NATO will capitulate."
Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO just before the war started and are candidates to join the European Union. Mr Seselj said that they would be betrayed.
"The nations who surrendered themselves too easily to Western plans are already feeling the negative impact", he said. "The West wants to impoverish them."
Because the US has not conquered Yugoslavia with aerial bombardments, he predicted, it will now try to use Albanians, Romanians, Bulgarians and Hungarians instead of US foot soldiers.
Belgraders greeted news of the new alliance with Russia and Belarus with mixed feelings. For decades, Marshal Tito fended off Russian attempts to meddle in Yugoslav affairs, and some Serbs fear Russian domination as much as they do the US.
But many are drawn to the idea of a union among Orthodox Slavs. Despite the rhetoric in parliament yesterday, the alliance is unlikely to have immediate military consequences. Belgrade is 1,900 km from Moscow and 1,200 km from Minsk. By delaying a 75-vehicle convoy of Russian fuel and humanitarian aid bound for Serbia at the weekend, Hungary has shown how isolated Belgrade now is.