Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic arrived in New York on Sunday and began a working visit to the United States of America. Prime Minister Brnabic will visit Columbus and Atlanta on 28-29 January, the Serbian Government announced.

Prime Minister Brnabic will meet in Columbus with Ohio Governor Mike Dewine and Commander of the National Guard Ohio Major General John Harris.

Leader of Peoples’ Party Vuk Jeremic in an interview to Vienna-based Der Standard said that Serbia is no longer a democratic state but “a corrupted autocracy” in which the President of the Republic grabbed all leverages of power, while he secretly negotiates on redrawing the borders in the region, Danas daily reports.

Serbian Assembly Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Chairperson Milovan Drecun thinks taxes on goods from central Serbia will be abolished, Tanjug news agency reported.

Drecun added that Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj now tries to act in line with USA wishes, but at the same time “avoid the embarrassment.”

Former USA Ambassador to Serbia, William Montgomery said that things in and around Kosovo at this moment are ongoing in a dangerous direction, Tanjug news agency reports.

“I hope I am wrong, but I am utterly pessimistic regarding the situation about Kosovo,” Montgomery said.

“The current stance of Kosovo leadership is that the declaration of independence has changed everything, and that new Kosovo can do everything that other independent states are doing,” Montgomery went on explaining.

Institute for European Studies Professor, Slobodan Zecevic told RTS Germany is interested that Serbia joins the EU, but also to resolve the Kosovo issue, since Serbia cannot enter the EU with unresolved relations with Albanians.

He also assessed that Pristina by refusing to lift taxes, despite requests from USA and EU, became some sort of “fugitive” in relation to the international law and international relations.

Can more visits of leaders of the world's most important countries be expected in the near future - this is a topic that the newspapers write about today. And some of them are announcing the arrival of US President Donald Trump and of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Vladimir Vuletic, a sociologist, and Stanko Crnobrnja, a professor at the Faculty for Media and Communications, touched on this while speaking for Prva TV on Tuesday morning.

Representative of Srpska Lista, Slavko Simic told RTS that tomorrow’s meeting of Kosovo Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli, PM Ramush Haradinaj and US Ambassador Philip Kosnett on taxes is of crucial importance, since the future of Belgrade and Pristina dialogue depends on it.

He also urged Brussels and Quint states to exert pressure on Kosovo leaders in order to revoke the taxes and make Kosovo Albanians sit at the negotiation table in Brussels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country respect the Serbian leadership's decision to join the EU. “Unlike our Western partners, we do not try to pose an artificial dilemma for Belgrade and make Serbia choose whether to be with Russia or with the European Union," Putin said in an interview for Serbian dailies Politika and Vecernje Novosti.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told Tanjug news agency when the US reacts strongly and shows its influence, there would be results as well.

He said this, in relation to the US request to Pristina to immediately revoke the taxes imposed for goods from Serbia or face sanctions.

President Vucic noted that imposed taxes stopped the dialogue, adding that frozen conflict with Pristina is the worst possible solution, as according to him, if frozen conflict melts, we will all go down.

Serbian Foreign Affairs Minster Ivica Dacic told RTS that based on the information he has, it is 100 percent true that the US has threatened Kosovo to impose some sort of sanction if taxes are not revoked.

Dacic added that in diplomatic circles and talks with people from the State Department one can hear that Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj “if things remain as they were” would not visit US any time soon, respectively his visa will not be granted.