Serbia’s EU Prospects

Vucic

Reviving Kosovo as a major political theme suits Russia, which for years has been using the territory as a political lever to impact developments in Serbia. Moscow’s right to veto decisions at the U.N. Security Council has been a formal obstacle to the full recognition of Kosovo’s independence, which is why Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko’s words that the Council’s Resolution 1244 might be amended have disturbed ultranationalists and prompted an independent Serbian MP, Miladin Sevarlic, to go on a hunger strike. What incited the reactions might be that the ultranationalists simply wanted to remind Russia not to change its stance or the encouragement might have come from Russia itself, which wishes to keep Kosovo as a source of influence on Serbia.