Despite the EU's mediation efforts, the Kosovars and Serbs have not settled the dispute that has been simmering for decades. Ethnic tensions put the Serbian army on alert. Moscow, which maintains good relations with Belgrade, pledges help.
In the conflict with Kosovo, Russia has pledged its support to Serbia. "We have very close ties as allies with Serbia, historical and spiritual," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow. "We support Belgrade in all its measures that are taken."
Russia is closely following what is happening in Kosovo "and how the rights of the Serbs are being protected (there)," Peskov added. It is "natural that Serbia defends the rights of Serbs living next door in such difficult conditions and that it reacts relentlessly when their rights are violated," he said. Serbia is a "sovereign country" and it is "fundamentally wrong to look for any destructive influence of Russia here".
Serbian army chief Milan Mojsilovic was sent to the Kosovo border by President Aleksandar Vucic on Sunday evening. Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic announced on Monday evening that the Serbian army had been put on increased alert because of the conflict with neighboring Kosovo to the south.
Kosovo, with its predominantly Albanian population, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but is still considered by Belgrade to be a breakaway southern Serbian territory. Despite mediation efforts by the EU, the neighboring countries have been at odds for years. Belgrade is encouraging the 120,000 ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo in their attempts to defy the authority of the Pristina government.
Tensions on the border with Serbia rose again in December. Shots fired at police officers at night and an attack on emergency services from the EU mission Eulex with a stun grenade triggered international concern. From December 10, hundreds of Kosovo Serbs set up roadblocks to protest the arrest of a former Serb police officer. Since then, they have paralyzed traffic near two of Kosovo's border crossings.
In early November, triggered by a dispute over car license plates, hundreds of Serbian police officers, judges, prosecutors and other officials stopped working. Pristina had wanted to oblige members of the Serbian minority to no longer drive with Serbian license plates, but to use those of the Republic of Kosovo.
