MOSCOW: Russia has said that it was closely monitoring the potentially dangerous situation in Kosovo, where Serb gunmen attacked a village at the weekend, fought police, and hid in a monastery, Western media reported on Monday.
Russia does not recognize Kosovo
Russia does not recognize Kosovo, which has mostly Albanian population, as an independent state and supports Serbia, with which it has close religious and cultural ties.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular news briefing that the situation is very difficult in Kosovo however, there is a traditionally biased attitude towards the Serbs.
Kosovo police units regained control of the monastery late on Sunday after three attackers and one police officer were killed. By Monday the village in northern Kosovo had been secured.
Ethnic Albanians are in majority of the 1.8 million population of Kosovo, formerly a province of Serbia.
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About 50,000 Serbs in the north of Kosovo have never accepted its impedance in 2008 and still consider Belgrade as their capital.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement saying that Sunday’s bloodshed was a direct and immediate outcome of the course of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. It said that such an act was aimed at fueling conflict and cleansing of Serbs from the territory.
The ministry said Kurti was trying to escalate the situation in order to enhance pressure on Serbs to recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
