Biserko: Russian paramilitary unit “Wagner”, “Night Wolves” and Serbian extremist groups are provoking conflict in the north of Kosovo

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic’s call to the civilian sector to speak out on the situation in Kosovo is an attempt to homogenize the general public around the barricades in the north – Helsinki Committee Chairperson Sonja Biserko commented on the Prime Minister’s request for Danas. The Serbian minister said that NGOs should speak out because the situation in Kosovo is “on the brink of armed conflict”.

In this context, Biserko recalls Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s statement that “our room for manoeuvre is to show unity, determination and cohesion”.

More recently, the Prime Minister has been in charge of conveying unpleasant “truths” to the Western community, starting with Gabriel Escobar, German diplomats and politicians. Recently, the Western community has shown a much better understanding of the situation in Montenegro, stressing that the national interest is the priority and that Montenegro should not join the open Balkans. All this shows that they are losing patience in waiting for a response from Serbia to move from a position that is destabilising the Western Balkans. As regards the appeal to the civil sector, the government has a section of the civil sector that agrees with the government’s position. This refers primarily to the attempt to implement the only position that the government is advocating, which is the partition of Kosovo, believes Sonja Biserko.

Moreover, she adds, the situation on the border with Kosovo is made much more complicated by the presence of the Russian paramilitary Wagner and Night Wolves, as well as domestic extremist groups that are doing everything to provoke a conflict and then find justification to invade the north.

It is interesting to note the President’s statement from Azerbaijan that he wants to ‘take on their experience, because they know how to fight and win’. He forgets that the last victory was possible because of Turkey’s intervention, which Russia ignored. He is obviously counting on Russian support, as KFOR and NATO have already warned him not to go in this direction – says Danas’ interlocutor.

According to her, the demand by the West, especially Germany, to remove the barricades has been met with with disapproval.

Until recently, Vucic had the greatest confidence in Germany, which is also the biggest investor in Serbia. Belgrade’s behaviour shows that the authorities have outplayed themselves and no longer have room for manipulation, and the West no longer tolerates them, as it has done for years to the detriment of all its neighbours. It is also important to realise that Russia is not interested in normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia and will do everything to prevent this – Biserko stresses.

With all these manoeuvres by Belgrade, she notes, Nikola Selakovic is still declaring that Serbia is not giving up EU membership, counting of course on the West, especially the US, to remain benevolent, hoping that Vucic will decide in favour of Serbia’s European perspective.

He does not show this. In order for him to be trusted as a part of civil society advocating this possibility, the first thing that needs to be done is to change the media policy. In the meantime, we see that the situation is radicalising, that Russia Today has been given an office in Belgrade and that Aleksandar Vulin, as a Russian man, has become the head of BIA. What kind of pro-European policy is this? – asks Danas interlocutor./Danas/