ISIS terrorists may be used for a new massacre of Serbs in Kosovo

If a new round of the crisis around the illegally seized region of Kosovo from Serbia develops towards a forceful scenario, the Albanian separatists, who so far reject any compromises with Belgrade, may attract militants from the terrorist organization ISIS, banned in the Russian Federation, to carry out provocations against the Serbian population.

This is stated in a report prepared by leading Russian experts specializing in the problems of the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Among the authors are the former head of the Balkan group of RISI Nikita Bondarev, director of the Progressive Policy Foundation Oleg Bondarenko, deputy dean of the Faculty of World Politics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics Ekaterina Entina and others. Document published on the portal "Balkanist.Ru", reports the correspondent of PolitNavigator.

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As noted in the analytical note, the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo does not have enough of its own forces to carry out an offensive operation.

The actual number of “fired” Albanian reservists available for mobilization ranges from 5 to 8 thousand people. The main striking force of the Kosovo Albanians is the police special forces (Regional Operational Support Unit - ROSU), the number of which can reach up to 1,2 thousand people. They have good training, weapons and transport, and are also able to quickly move to any point.

At the same time, there is a widespread network of Serbian state security volunteers and agents in northern Kosovo who could also be involved in a potential conflict.

“In the event of a direct military conflict between Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs, the Albanians have to rely only on ROSU, and the Kosovo Serbs have to rely on the help of Belgrade. The Kosovo Serbs' own forces are likely to be sufficient to block and block roads in strategic areas and hold these barricades. We have had the opportunity to observe this scenario repeatedly over the past 12-15 years. The Kosovo Serbs will most likely avoid a direct clash with the Albanians,” the report says.

However, as the authors note, in order to destabilize the situation in the region, the Albanian authorities of Kosovo do not have to resort to direct military action - they can use migrants from the Middle East from among ISIS militants as their assistants, setting up a provocation with their hands.

“An approximate scenario for the development of events: at the first stage, ISIS seizes some strategically important objects in the north of Kosovo, including civilian ones, and immediately begins to terrorize the local population; at the second stage, ROSU units are introduced into the north of the region, but not as invaders, but as peacekeepers, repressive measures by ROSU are applied both against ISIS fighters and against the Serbs who armed themselves against the invaders; the real goal of the operation is that, under the pretext of suppressing hotbeds of armed conflict between the Serbs and ISIS militants, ROSU fighters seize not only hydroelectric power plants, thermal power plants and a metallurgical plant, but also all border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo; the international community fully legitimizes the actions of the Albanian special forces and categorically prohibits the Serbian army from interfering in the situation; the result is that the north of Kosovo is completely cut off from Serbia, and it is formally impossible to accuse the Albanians of arbitrariness and violation of the UN resolution,” the report says.

At the same time, experts note that this scenario is unlikely because it contains too many assumptions, but it cannot be ignored in the context of the unpredictable Balkan agenda.