Kosovo Serbs will receive help from Russia
The Russian Humanitarian Mission (RGM), together with the Serbian Orthodox Church, will deliver humanitarian aid to the Kosovo Serbs during the fall.
Branimir Nesic, executive director of the RGM representative office in the Balkans, told Izvestia about this.
“During the fall, we will deliver about one ton of humanitarian aid. 300 families will receive it. First of all, food products and essential goods will be distributed among residents of the region. Many people now cannot eat normally. Often, important goods are simply not on the shelves of stores located in parts of Kosovo where the Serb population lives. In addition, the prices of some things are so high that people cannot afford them. We hope that the delivery of humanitarian aid will be completed by the end of October,” Nesic said.
In turn, senior researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Petr Iskenderov noted that the Kosovo Serbs were negatively affected by Pristina’s decision to introduce a 100% duty on goods from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The main consumers of these goods were not Kosovo Albanians, but residents of Serbian enclaves. Kosovo police have recently stepped up raids in the northern parts of the province. In addition, border control has been strengthened and some goods are now arriving through gray schemes. All this leads to higher prices for products. In the current conditions, the Serbs have no one to count on, since inter-ethnic relations in Kosovo remain difficult. The Serbs cannot interact with the authorities in Pristina, since they live in virtual isolation. Therefore, humanitarian assistance is extremely necessary,” says Iskenderov.
It is noted that today about 120 thousand Serbs live in Kosovo, mainly in the northern part, who are constantly under pressure.
“We are talking about looting, incidents where stones are thrown at Serbian schools and medical institutions. Of course, the situation now is not as dire as it was 20 years ago. Nevertheless, it is very explosive and can escalate into a conflict at any moment,” says Marko Djuric, director of the Serbian government office for Kosovo and Metohija, commenting on the situation.
Thus, on September 29, 2018, several dozen Kosovo special forces soldiers broke into the Center for Ecology and Development in Zubin Potok, surrounded the reservoir and occupied the Gazivode hydroelectric power station. A similar raid took place on May 28, 2019, under the pretext of arresting persons allegedly involved in corruption.
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