Due West: Should Russia rethink its Kosovo policy?

© Photo : KommersantKonstantin von Eggert
Konstantin von Eggert - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Barricades adorned with Russian tricolors. Portraits of Putin, Medvedev and Lukashenko, slogans like "We want Russian troops here!" - that is the reality in Mitrovica, the Serb enclave in northern Kosovo bordering Serbia proper. Or the province of Kosovo and Metokhia, as the Serbs call this area. I spent the last weekend in Kosovo and for the first time was able to take a peek at what is going on there.

Barricades adorned with Russian tricolors. Portraits of Putin, Medvedev and Lukashenko, slogans like "We want Russian troops here!" - that is the reality in Mitrovica, the Serb enclave in northern Kosovo bordering Serbia proper. Or the province of Kosovo and Metokhia, as the Serbs call this area. I spent the last weekend in Kosovo and for the first time was able to take a peek at what is going on there.

Serbs in Mitrovica are trying to prevent Kosovo customs officers and bailiffs from entering the enclave. The Serbs regularly clash with UN police. The de facto Albanian government in Pristina operates in Mitrovica only with the help of international forces. The population there hopes that sooner or later they will break away from Kosovo and join Serbia.

A few days ago the Russian media exploded with reports that no less than 20,000 Kosovo Serbs sent a letter to the Russian Embassy in Belgrade asking to be given Russian citizenship. They claim this is the only way they can protect themselves from intimidation by the Pristina government. But, according to Western diplomats in the region, the majority of signatures was collected among Serb refugees in Serbia, and sometimes even among people who themselves have never lived there, but have family roots in Kosovo. This was confirmed by Russian diplomats in Belgrade. They said that at least part of the signatures was collected in Serbia itself. So the main rule, which I learned while covering conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s – “Never fully trust anyone or anything” – is still useful.

The strange story of the Serb letter to Moscow is one more piece of evidence of that. It seems that this is yet another ploy by the opponents of Serbia’s pro-European president, Boris Tadic. He and his party are to face parliamentary elections in 2012. First, the letter implicitly accuses Serbian authorities of failing to protect their compatriots in Kosovo. Second, it deals a blow to Belgrade's position in negotiations in Brussels with the government in Pristina. The negotiations are mediated by the EU and form part of a normalization effort that Tadic has initiated with Kosovo.

Third, the Serbs living in the west and south of Kosovo are not particularly happy with their brothers’ in the north exercise in letter writing. In theory, Mitrovica Serbs may be able to secede. Then their brothers in the south and west of Kosovo would find themselves left behind.

Finally, the Russian government is not very happy either. Despite its opposition to Kosovo independence and its insistence on being the protector of Serbs, Moscow does not want an open conflict with NATO and the European Union. This is exactly what would have happened if the Russian authorities decided to grant the Serbs’ request for passports. But, judging by the conversations I had in Pristina on the sidelines of the inaugural Germia Hill Conference organized by the European Council on Foreign Relations, the Kosovo government is not entirely unhappy with the developments. It is an opportunity for it to tell its Western partners: "You see, we really try to make peace with the Serbs, but they are rowdy, unreasonable and stage provocations."

There is one interesting detail: according to Western diplomats in Pristina, nearly all Kosovo Serbs acquired Kosovo passports - in addition to their Serbian ones – despite the fact that Belgrade doesn’t recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state and still officially considers it a Serbian province. People are pragmatic, and who could blame them for this. This is not to say that Serbs do not have a problem living in a majority-Albanian state. But it seems that with time old animosities become muted, and the pain dulls. It also seems that Kosovo authorities are quite serious about eventually joining the EU. For this they have to have a spotless record on minority treatment. Hence a proliferation of bilingual street signs and trilingual headed papers in all government institutions.

Moreover, the Serbs in Serbia proper also increasingly “think European” and are slowly getting accustomed to the idea that they will not have Kosovo back. Russia has recently opened its Emergencies Ministry airbase near the town of Nis. Ostensibly to help in potential disaster relief and guard against possible damage to the South Stream gas pipeline. Many people at the Pristina conference asked questions as to whether this could be a disguise for a Russian Air Force site. It could be, or it might not be.

But Russian presence is sorely missing in Kosovo. Russia withdrew its paratroopers in 2003, citing “economic reasons.” Since the 2008 Kosovo independence proclamation, Moscow does not want to have anything to do with Pristina, despite the fact that Belgrade does. Today the protection of Orthodox churches and monasteries in Kosovo is in the hands of the so-called liaison mission of Greece, a country which, just as Russia, does not officially recognize Kosovo. If Russia had such an office, the Serbs would have felt much more secure, and Russia would have had more information and more meaningful policy in the region.

Things may be changing. A senior Kosovo diplomat told me: "Recently, Russian diplomats at international conferences have started to approach me and generally feel freer to talk with us." I said that Moscow's official position has not changed. But at the same time I thought to myself: "If the Serbian government talks to Pristina, why should Russians be ‘holier than the Pope’ on the issue?”

Kosovo independence is a fait accompli. Sooner or later it will be recognized by Serbia. Would Russia change its mind after this? I do not know. What I know is that Kosovo Serbs (if we Russians really care about them) would feel much more at ease if Russia were present there in some meaningful way.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

Due West: Who would have thought it’d be Moscow vs the Arabs?

Due West: Ukraine Still At The Crossroads

Due West: “Radical chic” Russian style

Due West: Will Obama's reset policy survive?

Due West: Which way will Russia go on the WTO?

Due West: Yanukovych’s mistake

Due West: Is Russia losing interest in WTO bid?

Due West: Business as usual under Putin - again?

Due West: The Kremlin vs. Yukos

Due West: As U.S. commemorates 9/11, Kremlin looks the other way

Due West: The rules of the oil game in Russia

Due West: Russia’s missed opportunity in Libya

Due West: Moscow's tortuous foreign policy

Due West: Hashing it out three years on - Russia-Georgia relations

Due West: Arab summer

Due West: Russian Nazis look to Norway

Due West: Sailing out of corruption

Due West: Medvedev should visit the graves of those who gave Russia true freedom

Due West: Otto of Austria - the uncrowned Emperor of Europe

Due West: Moscow and Minsk start a cold war, while China waits in the wings

Due West: Ukraine Turns Gaze Back to Brussels

Due West: Russia divided in wake of a murderer’s death

Due West: Long live the King!

Due West: Russia’s Balkans obsession seems to be finally over

Due West: Laying the table for Obama and Medvedev

Due West: Russia’s Two-Faced Approach to Foreign Policy

Due West: VE-Day Truths and Lies

Due West: George W. Bush has the last laugh

Due West: Wake up, it’s a new world Mr. Prime Minister

Due West: Putin vs. Medvedev

Due West: East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet

Due West: The Kuchma sensation

Due West: More Putin-Medvedev cat and mouse?

Due West: Send in the Sukhois

Due West: Russia’s Romance with conspiracy theories

Due West: Good-bye to a colonel and his Socialist People’s Republic

Due West: Was George W. Bush right on Arab democracy?

Due West: And What about Syria?

Due West: Boris Yeltsin - Russia's flawed but genuine revolutionary

Due West: Pointing fingers instead of pulling levers

Due West: The times they are a-changing – should secular Arabs fear democracy?

Due West: EU ready to sell out to Beijing

Due West: Not to be missed – two anniversaries in 2011

Due West: Hotspots and weak spots around the world in 2010

Due West: Lukashenko as Europe’s number one psychologist

Due West: Vaclav Havel – the man, who still believes in politics

Due West: Georgia’s wildcard in Russia’s WTO membership

Due West: The tabloid freedom of WikiLeaks

Due West: Russia prepared to go as far as NATO is prepared

Due West: Looking into the Russian-Japanese island spat

Due West: Russia's NATO Dream

*

What is Russia's place in this world? Unashamed and unreconstructed Atlanticist, Konstantin von Eggert believes his country to be part and parcel of the "global West." And while this is a minority view in Russia, the author is prepared to fight from his corner.

Konstantin Eggert is a commentator and host for radio Kommersant FM, Russia's first 24-hour news station. In the 1990s he was Diplomatic Correspondent for “Izvestia” and later the BBC Russian Service Moscow Bureau Editor. Konstantin has also spent some time working as ExxonMobil Vice-President in Russia. He was made Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала