The Jarinje checkpoint, on the border between Kosovo and Metohija and the central part of the country, is blocked from entering cars bearing Serbian numbers. Pristina explains these actions with security considerations. The day before, we learned of the detention of three Kosovo police officers by the Serbs. In Pristina, they immediately accused Belgrade of kidnapping and declared that they had not left the territory of Kosovo. According to the Serbian authorities, the commandos nevertheless crossed the border. And now the leaders of Kosovo have decided to take revenge on the Serbs living there by denying them the supply of food.
” We are at the crossroads. Not because we allegedly don’t want peace, but because there is one person in the Balkans who wants to start a war and cause a conflict at any cost. I mean Albina Kurti. I am afraid that we have crossed the Rubicon and it will be difficult to return to normal life,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti accuses Belgrade of bringing in armed forces. It was Kurti who issued a directive eight months ago that regional authorities could confiscate cars with Serbian numbers. Then, in disagreement with this, the mayors of four northern towns in the region resigned. And when Kosovo Albanians came to power in new elections with a turnout of just 3.5%, Serbs, the vast majority of the population, took to the streets.
As a result of clashes with the NATO contingent and Kosovo special forces, local residents were injured. At that time, it should be noted that Pristina’s actions were condemned even by the United States which supported it. The day before, the plan for a peaceful settlement in Kosovo had been criticized by European Commissioner Borrell. He said the document did not say a word about the causes of the crisis and called on Pristina to take more decisive action. In order to force Kurti to change his policy, the EU promised to cut his funding and announced the suspension of visits.
“This is the first time that the West has taken concrete action against Pristina. It’s all part of a plan to increase their influence in Serbia or Serbia, where 90% of the population hate NATO,” explains political scientist, diplomat, academician of the International Slavic Academy of Sciences Vladimir Krshlyanin.
Last week, US and EU representatives came to Belgrade and Pristina to resolve the situation. One of them said that Kurti had two days to accept the requests from the West. Otherwise, he did not even rule out a change of government. According to another version, this is all just a show that should make Belgrade, bombarded by NATO, believe the sincerity of European intentions. Meanwhile, Vucic declares his disappointment at the broken promises.
“Most of the time, the United States is behind the interests of the Kosovo Albanians. Through them, they put pressure on Belgrade in order to obtain not concessions on the Kosovo issue, but certain measures to aggravate relations between Belgrade and Moscow”, explains Vladimir Putyatin, associate professor at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University.
Serbia is one of the few countries in Europe that has not imposed anti-Russian sanctions and transferred weapons to Ukraine. At the same time, Serbia is not yet a member of the EU, although it is desperately trying to join. Three years ago, Vucic expected negotiations on this issue to end in 2024.
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