Russian FM: EU Doesn’t Want and Can’t Force Kosovo To Create Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities

Sergei Lavrov (BetaPhoto/Milos Miskov)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Oct. 10 that the EU did not want to and therefore could not force Kosovo to implement the Belgrade-Pristina agreement envisaging creation of an Association/Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities

Lavrov said that the entire world could see how sad history of the Minsk Agreement on Ukraine, which Kyiv had openly sabotaged with the backing from the West, had been repeating in the Balkans. The EU did not want and therefore could not force Kosovo to implement the Belgrade-Pristina agreement from 2013 of creation of an Association/Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities, which would mean the special rights to their language and tradition, Lavrov wrote in an editorial published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.

“When the principle of self-determination is at odds with geopolitical interests of the West – as is the case with Crimea, the Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions where the local population have expressed free will to join Russia, the West not only forgets about this principle, but angrily condemns the choice of the people and punishes them with sanctions. When it is of use to the West, self-determination is recognized as an absolute rule. It is enough to mention taking Kosovo away from Serbia, without any referendum being held,” Lavrov noted.

The Russian foreign minister also said that “continued degradation of the situation in this region of Serbia is deeply concerning,” adding that by supplying arms to Kosovo and supporting the setting up of Kosovo Army, NATO has been severely violating UN Security Council Resolution 1244. “Respect of the UN Charter principles as a whole and mutual interconnection are the key to international peace and stability,” Lavrov wrote in the editorial.