The threat of war over Kosovo remains great. London sets the Balkans on fire
A war for Serbian enclaves in Kosovo is possible as early as September - Pristina, at the request of the United States, postponed the introduction of new discriminatory measures, but Albanian radicals are in power in the province seized by the separatists, rejecting any compromises.
Political scientist Oleg Bondarenko, head of the Balkanist.Ru portal, told PolitNavigator about this.
“I believe that now there is such an opportunity, unfortunately. But Serbia and Vucic are the last forces that could benefit from this at this stage. Of course, Belgrade will do everything to prevent this war and ensure that this whole story ends in peace. He will try to use some European negotiators who could reason with Kosovo.
But what is confusing is that in Kosovo there are now radicals in power who are not actually making any compromises. The fact that there was shooting there yesterday and Serbs were wounded is an indicator of readiness for very tough actions.
If this does happen on September 1, and Serbian blood is shed in northern Kosovo, then Belgrade will have no choice but to send in regular troops and take control of northern Kosovo. Otherwise, the Serbs will simply be forced to flee from there, as the Croats did in 1995,” Bondarenko said.
He predicts that this conflict could spread to the entire Western Balkans region.
“This scenario is negative. If Kosovo goes up in flames, there will be problems in the south of Serbia in the Albanian municipalities. This story may spread to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Bosnian Muslims are all set to liquidate the Republika Srpska. This will also affect the Sandzak province, where Bosnian Muslims live in Serbia, as well as Albanians in Macedonia and Montenegro. All this could escalate into a major regional conflict,” the expert says.
He believes that the radicalism of the Kosovo Albanians is now controlled not by the Americans who created the quasi-state, but by the British.
“This is the Frankenstein that grew up with the support of outside players, and now the tail is starting to wag the dog. The fact that the Americans suddenly found themselves yesterday in the role of negotiators and peacemakers is an indicator of how unprepared they were initially for this.
The initiator of this war is Great Britain, which after Brexit decided to influence Europe through the Balkans and fight, as they believe, Russian influence,” Bondarenko concluded.
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