We continue to monitor the situation closely. According to incoming information, on December 29, Serbs in Kosovo began to dismantle the barricades erected in response to the discriminatory steps of the provisional Self-Government bodies in Pristina. It is possible to overcome the acute phase of the crisis without bloodshed thanks to the constructive steps of the Serbian leadership, which has done everything possible to avoid an open clash.
At the same time, the compromise reached under the “firm guarantees” of the West can hardly be called sustainable. The issue of the establishment of the Community of Serbian Municipalities of Kosovo, which is vital for the Serbs, has been ignored, designed to become an effective tool for ensuring their rights and security in an environment of systematic persecution on a national basis. Without Pristina fulfilling this key commitment, which it has been sabotaging for almost a decade, the situation is doomed to remain just as fragile, with the constant threat of relapses of aggravation. Moreover, as can be seen from the statements of the Kosovo Albanian “authorities”, they are not going to abandon the plan to take the Serb-populated areas of the region under full military control.
We do not see anything new in the confirmation of the prohibition of the “Kosovo Security Forces” (SBK) to enter the north of the province without the prior consent of the international Forces for Kosovo and the heads of four municipalities with a Serbian majority. Similar procedures for “SBK” have long existed. Moreover, there were no such restrictions for the heavily armed special forces of the Kosovo “police”. Nothing will prevent local commandos from continuing to terrorize the regional Serbs, arrange intimidation actions and pogroms against them under the guise of “crime-fighting raids”.
We know the price of any Western guarantees well. We have repeatedly seen them in action in Ukraine, the Balkans, and other crisis zones. As long as the “de-escalation” agreements pushed through by the US and the EU leave out the nodal unresolved problems in Kosovo, a lasting solution is impossible. The mediation of the European Union in the dialogue of the parties does not bear fruit, the negotiations are meaningless, which gives Pristina the opportunity to increase the anti-Serbian course.
Such an approach of the West is fundamentally destructive, does not carry prerequisites for a genuine settlement, which is possible solely on the basis of international law and the fundamental UN Security Council resolution 1244.
A source: https://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1846297/
