Russian Foreign Ministry: Provoking separatists in Kosovo threatens with unpredictable consequences
Today's provocation of Albanian separatists in Kosovo, as a result of which special forces carried out mass arrests of residents of Serbian enclaves, and also beat and detained a Russian citizen, an employee of the UN mission, threatens with unpredictable consequences. The Western patrons of the ruling elite in Pristina must immediately influence their charges.
This is stated in a statement published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We consider the invasion of Kosovo Albanian special forces into Serb-populated municipalities in the north of the region on the morning of May 28 and the detention of 13 local Serbs as another provocation by Pristina, aimed at intimidating and squeezing out the non-Albanian population, establishing control over these areas by force.
We remind you that during the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, with the participation and support of the West, an understanding was reached that Kosovo police special forces, armed with long-barreled weapons, would not enter the Serb-populated north. However, over the past years, this has happened again and again with the full connivance of the international Kosovo Force, which has the necessary mandate from the UN Security Council to ensure peace and security in the province.
It is clear that such defiant behavior of the Kosovars is a direct consequence of many years of indulgence by the EU and the United States. Kosovo leaders are already accustomed to getting away with all provocations.
Such steps lead to inflaming inter-ethnic tensions and deprive the long-term efforts of the international community for a peaceful post-conflict resolution.
The moment for the invasion was not chosen by chance - immediately after the speech of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in the National Assembly on the Kosovo issue. We believe that Belgrade’s restrained approach aimed at achieving a fair, long-term solution is of no interest to Pristina or its Western patrons.
At such a crucial moment, we call on the international patrons of Pristina to bring the Kosovo Albanian radicals to reason and prevent the further escalation of the conflict with unpredictable consequences,” the Russian Foreign Ministry says.
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