MOSCOW, June 6 Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, commenting on the statements of the special representative for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina Miroslav Lajcak on the agreements between Serbia and Kosovo and the Minsk agreements, said that the comparison between them is fundamentally wrong.
Earlier, the special representative for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina Miroslav Lajcak said that the prisoners this year, the agreements between Kosovo and Serbia should «be a guide» to resolving tensions, adding that they differ from the Minsk agreements on Ukraine in that the EU is involved in them. In his opinion, the agreements between Xovo and Pristina will be implemented, «the question is when, not if.»
«Such a comparison is fundamentally wrong, just because, unlike the Minsk agreements, the agreements reached in February-March between Belgrade and Pristina are exclusively oral,» Zakharova said, commenting on Lajcak's statements.
«Imposed The Serbian EU normalization plan is nothing more than a political declaration that does not impose legal obligations on the parties,» she said, noting that «the West stubbornly demands the implementation of this scheme, blaming the Serbian leadership for non-compliance.»
According to Zakharova, it is obvious that «the problem is not Belgrade's 'stubbornness', but the inferiority of the approach itself, when the national interests of Serbia are neglected and the so-called independence of Kosovo is promoted, ignoring the fundamental resolution of the UN Security Council 1244».
«The attempts of the Brussels functionaries, including Lajcak, to disown the Minsk agreements are unconvincing. We recall that the leaders of the largest EU states — France and Germany, with the support of the EU itself, acted as their guarantors,» she stressed.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry recalled that » later they admitted that from the very beginning they worked to prolong and escalate the Ukrainian crisis.»
«If the EU had pushed the Kiev regime to implement «Minsk» with the same zeal that they are now putting pressure on Belgrade, then the tragic development events in Ukraine would most likely have been avoided,» Zakharova said.
«Despite the obvious failure of their mediation in the dialogue on Kosovo, Brussels continues to repeat that the EU is indispensable for solving problems in the region. At the same time, they are «burying» the Brussels agreements between Belgrade and Pristina in 2013-2015 with their own hands, which European officials are already trying not to recall aloud, as if they never existed,» she added.
May 29, 19:19InfographicKosovo and Metohija: where Serbs liveView
Zakharova believes that «here the analogy with the Minsk agreements is just appropriate: in both cases, the signed documents were needed by the West not in order to fulfill them, but in order to create an advantage for one of the parties, and in both cases the consequences are deplorable.»
«It turns out that, in the understanding of European officials, a gross violation of international law, a refusal to take on obligations, a long-term encouragement of Pristina's aggressive Serbophobia is the ideal Western agenda in the Balkans,» she said.
«As a result, Kosovo Albanian extremists have again brought the region to the brink of armed conflict, anti-Serb violence in the province has reached critical proportions, the hope for a fair long-term settlement is fading before our eyes, while the West habitually pretends to be a 'unique peacemaker'. Alarming logic, alarming facts,» Zakharova concluded .
Thousands of Kosovo Serbs gathered in front of local government buildings in the north of Kosovo and Metohija on May 29 to demand the withdrawal of the Kosovo police and the recall of the Kosovo Albanian mayors. Soldiers of the NATO KFOR contingent with means to disperse demonstrations were distributed near the buildings of the municipalities of Zvecan, Leposavić and Zubin Potok. Behind them were a large Kosovo police force that prevented the Kosovo Serbs from approaching the buildings. In the evening clashes broke out between the protesters and the security forces. Tear gas was used, dozens of stun grenades were thrown, and there was shooting. As a result of clashes between local residents and security forces, 52 Serbs and at least 30 military personnel of the North Atlantic Alliance were injured. Serbs later also gathered in front of the municipalities of Zvecan and Leposavić in northern Kosovo to protest, with organizers calling for the protests to go peacefully. The NATO KFOR contingent surrounded the self-government buildings with rows of barbed wire in advance, behind them were heavily equipped Kosovo Albanian policemen with armored vehicles.
The head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell previously published the full text of the US-backed European proposal with clauses on the mutual recognition of documents and state symbols and the refusal of Belgrade from preventing Pristina from joining international organizations. Miroslav Lajcak, EU Special Representative for the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, said that the proposal was accepted by the parties and published, it remains to approve the program for its «full implementation». According to the EU Special Representative, the leadership of the Union and the United States also insist on the formation by the Kosovo Albanian authorities of the Community of Serb Communities with the rights of autonomy in the province in accordance with the Brussels Agreement of 2013.