Russian-oriented party in Serbia calls for Russian intervention in Kosovo

Serbia’s leading Russian-oriented party, the Serbian
League, called upon its government to appeal to Russian President Putin to send
peacekeepers into Kosovo in a statement published on Jan. 19. The UN
peacekeeping mission and EULEX are incapable of protecting ethnic Serbs on that
territory from murder and destruction being committed by Albanian terrorists,
the statement said, following the Jan. 16 murder of Oliver Ivanovic, the leader
of Kosovo Serbs.

Besides dispatching Serbian soldiers, the Serbian
government should invite the Russians to join the peace process, “and sign an
agreement between Serbia and Russia analogous to the crisis resolution model in
Syria,” the statement said, referring to Russia as the “protector of Orthodox
peoples” against becoming “a colony of Western states.”

Zenon Zawada: It’s a
dangerous move for a European political party to call for Russian military
intervention in a country. Although this speaks to a certain desperation on
their part, it’s also possible that such a statement was coordinated with
Russian officials. Such appeals confirm the concerns in the Western leadership
of Russian military activity spreading further West from Ukraine.

As for the situation in Ukraine, we don’t expect
the two Russian-oriented parties – the Opposition Bloc and For Life – to make
similar calls for Russian peacekeeping intervention. However, these parties are
calling for peace, which ultimately means relaxing sanctions, allowing Russia
to remain in Crimea (regardless of its de jure legal status), and fulfillment
of the Minsk Accords to Moscow’s liking, which would be enough to appease the
Russian government. We believe these parties could form the parliamentary
opposition after the elections scheduled for October 2019.