There will be no compromises

Russia will not allow Kosovo to be cut off from Serbia

Russia is “firmly in solidarity” with the Serbian leadership on the Kosovo issue , Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday after negotiations with his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic (pictured) . Appointed on May 15 as head of Serbian diplomacy, 32-year-old Jeremic arrived in Russia for a three-day visit at the invitation of his Russian colleague.

The main topic of Jeremic's talks in Moscow is the Kosovo problem, which has already become an obstacle to dialogue between Russia and the West. US President George W. Bush yesterday reiterated that, in the American side's opinion, the new UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo should be based on the "Ahtisaari plan." The document, prepared in February by the ex-president of Finland on behalf of the UN Secretary General, gives the Serbian region independence under international supervision. This plan is unacceptable for Belgrade, and for Moscow too. First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov harshly stated yesterday that “there cannot be any compromises” regarding the American missile defense system and Kosovo. Russia rejects the West's hasty attempts to give legitimacy to Kosovo separatism through a UN decision and advocates direct negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina. Moscow has hinted more than once that it may veto the Western draft resolution on Kosovo, based on the “Ahtisaari plan.”

“We support the efforts of the Serbian government in solving all the tasks facing it, we are in solidarity on issues regarding Kosovo,” Mr. Lavrov said yesterday. “We will not be able to agree with any unilateral decision that will be imposed on Serbia.” “The new head of the Serbian Foreign Ministry is oriented towards the West, but it is very important that he is making his first international visit outside the Balkans to Russia. This speaks to the extreme importance of Russia’s position for Serbia today,” Elena Guskova, head of the Center for the Study of the Contemporary Balkan Crisis at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, emphasized to Vremya Novostey. Yesterday Jeremic warned that the West's recognition of Kosovo's independence is fraught with a deterioration in relations with Belgrade.

The communication between Lavrov and Jeremic became a preparation for the meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica on June 9 in St. Petersburg as part of the international economic forum. Ms. Guskova suggested that at this meeting, for the first time in the years of the Balkan crisis, “we will talk about a fair solution that would satisfy both the Serbian and Albanian sides,” which could “reverse the injustice that has established itself over the years in the Balkans.”

Meanwhile, the West is increasing pressure on the Serbian authorities. Yesterday in Belgrade, Serbian President Boris Tadic spoke with the chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, Carla del Ponte. She was pleased with the “serious commitment” that Belgrade has made in the case of wanted war criminals, most notably General Ratko Mladic, who is accused of war crimes during the Bosnian war, in particular the 1995 massacre in the city of Srebrenica. Tadic announced the “absolute unity” of Serbian leaders in the need to cooperate with the Hague Tribunal. Inspired, Carla del Ponte is confident that by her report to the UN on June 18, she will receive all the criminals wanted by the tribunal. Behind her is the European Union, which has conditioned negotiations with Belgrade on the prospects for Serbia's membership in the EU on the fulfillment of obligations to The Hague.

The former Ambassador of Yugoslavia to Russia and the brother of the former President of Yugoslavia, Borislav Milosevic, told VN that in Serbia there is no consensus on cooperation with the tribunal. An example is that nationalist-minded youth held a campaign to name one of the boulevards in Belgrade after Ratko Mladic. “Western pressure is not just unceremonious, but brutal. I am for Serbia’s membership in the EU on equal terms with everyone, but not on the terms of the Hague dictatorship and Western blackmail,” concluded Mr. Milosevic.

Katerina LABETSKAYA, Ivan SOLOVIEV