Former head of the Bulgarian national intelligence service, Kircho Kirov, thinks that Serbia is becoming "a regional military factor."
Beta agency reported this on Thursday, citing Kirov as saying that his country, as a NATO member, "has problems with its rearmament, while Serbia is receiving modern Russian combat equipment for free."
Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, said during her speech at the European Countries Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Committees Summit that Russia is trying to impact negatively in the region. “In addition to the internal agenda of the countries of the region, we are also dealing with some geopolitical ambitions. Here I am speaking about Russia, which has openly expressed ambitions to increase impact in the region. Therefore, we have to increase our cooperation to show that our region is Euro-Atlantic,” Tahiri said.
President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, said at the summit of European countries Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Committees taking place in Pristina that the EU often lacks vision and leadership and thus risks becoming a bureaucratic institution detached from its citizens. “One of those speaking strongly about Brussels lacking vision is me but there is no other alternative for us nor are we seeking a different one,” Thaci said.
Ethnic tensions are rising in Kosovo, setting the stage for an early test of U.S.-Russian relations under President Donald Trump in a Balkan country where U.S. troops keep the peace decades after a NATO air campaign ended Serb rule over the Albanian population.
A 78-day U.S.-led bombing campaign in 1999 forced Serbia to give up control of Kosovo, which Serbs consider their historic homeland, after months of reprisal killings and forced dislocations by armed Serbs and ethnic Albanian rebels.
The leading British commentator on international affairs in general and Russia in particular, and former Moscow correspondent for The Times, Mary Dejevsky, told Radio Free Europe in Albanian that a solution between the West and Russia could be reached through an eventual agreement for “recognition of Russian authority over Crimea as an exchange for Russia’s recognition of Kosovo.”
Russia will not recognize Kosovo - Moscow does not and never will barter with Serbia's territorial integrity, say Russian experts.
Sputnik is reporting that this reaction came in the wake of claims made by western analysts that "Russia could recognize Kosovo in order to reach a deal with the US."
Russian experts say that such statements look like an attempt of their Western counterparts to "drive a wedge" between Russia and Serbia.
The direct Russian interventions in Ukraine and Serbia, as well as the scandals of the U.S. presidential campaign, have overshadowed another ongoing Russian power play -- one in the Balkans. It's quieter and far less violent than other assertive moves by the Kremlin, but that doesn't make it any less important in the 21st century re-enactment of the Great Game.
An armed conflict in the middle of Europe was averted over the weekend, says Sergei Zheleznyak, international secretary of the ruling United Russia party.
He said peace was preserved on Saturday "only thanks to the peacefulness and the strong nerves exhibited by Serbia's leadership and Aleksandar Vucic personally."
Russian Foreign Minister on Tuesday said that a new war in the Balkans must be avoided, and that Albanian forces should not be in northern Kosovo and Metohija.
Speaking during his annual news conference in Moscow, Lavrov touched on the latest tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.
"The forces of Kosovo Albanians should not be present in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, which is inhabited by Serbs," said Lavrov.