Most Serbs oppose handing three generals over to The Hague to face Kosovo war crimes charges, even if the country continues to pay a price internationally for its defiance of the United Nations tribunal.
An opinion poll published the day after tribunal chief prosecutor Ms Carla del Ponte slammed Serbia at the United Nations showed the majority believes the officers should not be arrested and extradited, as she has repeatedly demanded.
Ms Del Ponte's criticism was fully expected and more or less shrugged off in advance. She has criticized Serbia constantly since Prime Minister Mr Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in March 2003 and cooperation with the tribunal fell off dramatically.
Her latest blast appeared to have only minor impact, suggesting Serbs may have concluded that the UN court has few teeth left. It is already handling a raft of ex-Yugoslav trials, including that of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
"I don't think that anything is going to change until the government arrests someone, and I do not believe they are going to make any arrests," said Mr Jovan Simic, an advisor to Serbian President Boris Tadic, leader of the main opposition party.
"The Serbian government is not taken seriously by anyone in the international community," he said, predicting that Serbs would continue "queuing in long lines for western visas".
But even before Ms Del Ponte called Belgrade "the single most important obstacle" to the work of the tribunal, Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic said the economy would not suffer.
"As an economist, I am not worried," Mr Dinkic said. "The Americans produce most of the negative reports about our cooperation with The Hague but at the same time, they remain Number One investors in Serbia and continue to invest."