„Mr. President, whatever the attitude of the Russian Federation – we will understand it. May God keep you safe and let Russia be as big and strong as possible,“ the opposition movement ‘Otadzbina’ (Fatherland) from Kosovo wrote in a new, open letter to Vladimir Putin in connection with the proposal for the ethnic separation of Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo – for which they claim that it is represented by the Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic.

In that way, Serbia would allegedly retain 1% of the territory of Kosovo and the Serbs would not want to live under such a solution – they further claimed. That is why ‘Otadzbina’ requested a half-hour meeting with Putin at the premises of the Russian Embassy on January 17th, during Putin’s visit of Belgrade.

Kossev published the letter in its entirety.

„Dear Mr. President,

Our findings that you are set to visit Serbia in mid-January of 2019 is the reason we are writing to you again. Namely, all pro-government media, as well as the president of Serbia, and the Russian ambassador in Belgrade, Alexander Chepurin say that you will come to Belgrade on January 17th.

We feel free to ask you to meet with us during your stay in the Republic of Serbia at the premises of the Russian Embassy for a time not longer than half an hour to resolve some of the doubts that burden us.

Namely, the official position of the Russian Federation is that the solution of the status of Kosovo and Metohija must be in accordance with Resolution 1244 which guarantees the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia, which is our position as well. Some of your other representatives, such as Maria Zakharova, Alexei Pushkov, and Alexander Chepurin say that Moscow will accept any solution Belgrade and Pristina agree upon.

You are certainly aware that the President of Serbia, when negotiating with his southern province, is representing the idea of „delimitation“ with the Albanians, with which, by territorial combinations, the Republic of Serbia is allegedly set to receive just over 1% of the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. Since we do not want to live in such a separatist formation, we would like to know in a timely manner what the real position of the Russian Federation is and we want to hear it directly from you. The ‘delimitation’ plan of Serbs and Albanians essentially means giving up Kosovo and Metohija and is contrary to UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

After 1999, more than 220,000 of our compatriots from Kosovo and Metohija ended up in collective and collection centres in the rest of Serbia. Many of them still live in them today. In order not to experience their fate, we would like to prepare for the eventual unfavorable development of events in time. It is normal that you are primarily concerned with the interests of your country. We know that the number of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija is higher than the number of Russians living in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, but it did not even cross your mind to ‘delimitate’. On the contrary, you are transferring the headquarters of the Caspian fleet from Astrakhan to the port of Kaspiysk in Dagestan.

Mr. President, whatever the attitude of the Russian Federation – we will understand it.

May God keep you safe and let Russia be as big and strong as possible.’’

President of the National Movement of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija ‘Otadzbina’

Slavisa Ristic“