SERBIA/KOSOVO: Russia's likely next president, Dmitry Medvedev says no shift in Moscow support for Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo; Russia and Serbia sign gas agreement in Belgrade

Record ID: 1530260

  • Title: SERBIA/KOSOVO: Russia's likely next president, Dmitry Medvedev says no shift in Moscow support for Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo; Russia and Serbia sign gas agreement in Belgrade
  • Date: 25th February 2008
  • Summary: SERBIAN AND RUSSIAN DELEGATIONS SEATED AT TABLE FOR MEETING MEDVEDEV AND RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEI LAVROV AT MEETING TADIC AT MEETING
  • Embargoed: 11th March 2008 15:22
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA7TO0MFCTKSGQ1IDPV5I9FBL65
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Russia's likely next president, Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday (February 25) that Belgrade and Moscow would continue to co-ordinate their efforts against Kosovo's recognition, as Serbs in the divided city of Mitrovica continued their protests against Kosovo's declaration of independence.
    Medvedev, the Kremlin-backed frontrunner for president, met pro-Western President Boris Tadic and nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who has long leaned on Moscow for help against the secession of Serbia's southern province.
    Currently Russia's first deputy prime minister, Medvedev is expected to win a presidential election on Sunday (March 2). He was travelling with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a signal that Russian support for Belgrade would continue after his election.
    Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin have condemned the Feb. 17 secession of Kosovo and charged the United States and major European Union states with breaching international law by recognising it as independent.
    In a statement on Sunday (February 24), the Russian foreign ministry again demanded a "compromise" on Kosovo.
    "We have agreed to coordinate our efforts in helping Serbia to get out of this complicated situation and in solving the issue of Kosovo. And we have agreed to coordinate these efforts in all relevant institutions,"
    Medvedev told a news conference after meeting Kostunica in Belgrade.
    He added that Russia would strengthen economic ties with Serbia, referring to the signing of an agreement with Belgrade to create a joint company to build the Serbian arm of the South Stream pipeline. The 10-billion-euro (14.65-billion U.S.-dollar) project by Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI will bring gas to Europe.
    The deal under which Serbia joined South Stream in exchange for allowing Gazprom to buy control of Serbian oil monopoly NIS was widely seen as a politically-motivated agreement meant to thank Russia for its support on the issue of Kosovo.
    Belgrade has pulled its ambassadors from the countries that have recognised the Albanian-majority province, and counts on Russia as its main ally.
    Kostunica told the news conference he did not plan to normalise the relations with the countries that had recognised Kosovo until they annul the decision.
    "There cannot be a normalisation of relations with the states that have recognized Kosovo's independence until they annul that decision", he said.
    He also said Serbia was encouraged by protests staged by Serbs in many countries around the world and that these protests would not stop.
    In Kosovo itself, more than a thousand Serbs protested against independence in the flashpoint northern city of Mitrovica.
    Serbs there have held daily protests since the declaration of independence on February 17.
    During the protest, the demonstrators burned a European Union and a picture of pro-Western Serbian President Boris Tadic with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
    Monday's protest ended with a performance entitled 'Pandora's Box', the symbolic box being left at the feet of UNMIK police guarding the bridge over the the River Ibar which divides the Serb controlled north of the city from the Albanian southern side.
    Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombed to drive out Serb forces to halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year war against rebels.
    The north is home to just under half of Kosovo's 120,000 remaining Serbs, the rest living in isolated enclaves guarded by a 16,000-strong NATO peace force.
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