The Russian ambassador to Serbia Alexandar Botsan – Kharchenko said on Wednesday that if his country was involved in solving the Kosovo issue, Moscow would insist on international law and still valid UN Security Council Resolution 1244 “or everything else would be in vain,” the FoNet news agency reported.

He told the Russian Sputnik media outlet that he did not see a favourable international situation for solving the Kosovo issue right now, "especially since the US and some other countries want a quick result."

Serbian citizens do not need visas to travel to 71 countries and holders of diplomatic passports can travel visa-free to 93 countries Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic told the Serbian Parliament on Wednesday, BETA news agency reports.

Dacic was presenting to the Parliament proposal to abolish visas for nationals of number of other countries. He said the visa-free regime was in place for Serbian citizens travelling to all European Union countries except Great Britain and Ireland as well as Russia, China, Brazil, the Ukraine among others.

Serbia’s Ambassador to Russia Miroslav Lazanski said on Tuesday that US diplomat Matthew Palmer should not have agreed to be special envoy for the Western Balkans.

“If he had studied history a little he should not have accepted. All envoys either died or were dismissed, from Richard Holbrooke to Hoyt Lee. I don’t know of any envoy to the Western Balkans who succeeded. This is something that every smart American politician should avoid,” he told the N1 morning show.

Serbia must terminate a new trade agreement with Russia's Eurasian Economic Union when it joins the European Union. This is a clear message from European Commission to Serbia, Tanjug news agency reports today.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharachenko and said he does not expect a swift continuation of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, N1 reports. On the other hand, Ambassador Botsan-Kharachenko said Russia is ready to contribute to the resolution of the Kosovo issue within the international law.

Russian ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko told N1 on Thursday that Russia sees Serbia as a link between the West and Moscow, adding the free trade agreement between Serbia and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) was expected to be signed on October 25.

He added that Serbia’s road to the European Union should not distant the country from EAEU.

Botsan-Kharchenko also said that EU candidates should not face a choice between Brussels or Moscow.

Russia’s ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said that Belgrade was expected to sign a free-trade pact with the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) on October 25, reported Belgrade based agency Tanjug.

“This is a significant event. The media are paying due attention to it,” Botsan-Kharchenko said in a tweet.

Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko told Belgrade based TV Prva this morning that Kosovo is an issue that needs additional international community activity and that Russia is ready to assist in establishing or renewing Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

Botsan-Kharchenko says that Russia is ready to help the dialogue if Belgrade seeks help, primarily at the UN Security Council, as well as in Russia's relations with the EU and Washington.

US Ambassador to Belgrade Kyle Scott twitted that it was time to put an end to the conflicts of the 1990s and called on Belgrade and Pristina to resume dialogue as soon as possible, Serbian media reports.

"It is time to put an end to the conflicts of the 90s. I urge Kosovo and Serbia to reopen the EU-sponsored dialogue as soon as possible and to refrain from taking steps that hinder an agreement," Scott wrote on Twitter, sharing also yesterday's joint statement by the Quint countries.

American Balkans experts Michael Carpenter told the Voice of America that the coming elections in Kosovo and Serbia could slow down the process of reaching an agreement to normalize Belgrade-Pristina relations.

Carpenter, formerly a senior Department of Defense official for Russia, the Balkans Eurasia, said that election season is a very bad time to reach international agreements because it is a good time for people who advocate hard-line political stands.