Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic did not achieve the goals he set on the eve of the visit, or he did not get “approval for his version of Kosovo’s recognition,” said today’s Moscow daily Kommersant.
The newspaper states that the Serbian president often stays in Russia, “more often than any other president,” adding that Putin is quite popular in the Balkans, and that another arrival in Moscow means a rise in popularity by several percent for the Serbian president.
Kommersant writes that before the arrival of Vucic to Moscow “inconvenience happened” i.e. the appearance of Kosovo President Hashim Thaci in northern Kosovo.
“Vucic wanted to draw the attention of Putin to the concerns over this situation, more so as, according to Komersant, in Serbia, they expect a UN Security Council session, in which China will raise the issue of the final recognition of Kosovo by the world organization … A Vucic is not against it, especially because he feels the pressure from the leadership of the EU and Federica Mogherini: She may want to remain remembered in her function as someone who finally closed the problem of Kosovo for the world,” the Moscow daily writes, reports Beta news agency.
The daily, referring to unnamed sources, writes that Vucic “during the talks with Putin wanted to get his support for the recognition of Kosovo”, adding that the Serbian President himself is ready for such recognition if the north of Kosovo is separated.
Kommersant adds “therefore, Vucic vigorously promises to Russia that Serbia will not join NATO, but doesn’t he overemphasize it? In such cases, it happens that the thing you swore you will not do it, at the end, you do,” the Moscow daily writes.
“Obviously, the Russian negotiators realized that it was not all that simple to receive Vucic. At the beginning it was only Putin; the negotiations in four eyes lasted more than an hour, and 40 minutes were dedicated to Kosovo,” the daily correspondent from Kremlin reports.
The daily adds, referring to unnamed sources that Vucic “did not receive Putin’s understanding, on why Russia should not veto the UN Security Council, if China really asks a question about Kosovo’s membership in the UN and about the price of it for Serbia in Vucic’s version.”
“It should be said that the Serbian president spoke with Putin exclusively in Russian, although the protocol, without a doubt, does not foresee this, even if the interlocutors speak the language of the other not worse than their own: it is considered correct that the head of state talks in the language of his country,” writes Kommersant.
