All news

Russia cannot trust European statements on implementing agreements on Kosovo — Kremlin

Dmitry Peskov expressed doubts about European representatives implementing the current agreements

MOSCOW, May 31. /TASS/. The Kremlin welcomes any measures on settling the situation around Kosovo but does not unconditionally trust statements by European representatives on fulfilling agreements, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday.

"Any actions, any measures, any activity to take the situation out of its critical phase and to guarantee the rights of all interested parties will be welcome," the Kremlin official stressed.

That said, he expressed doubts about European representatives implementing the current agreements. "Of course, we wouldn’t unquestionably trust such statements, they should be treated with close attention because in the past there have been multiple occasions when obligations went unfulfilled. We can simply say this based on our own experience," Peskov said reacting to remarks by EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak who is confident that agreements between Belgrade and Pristina will be implemented.

The Kremlin spokesman recalled a certain document signed by the then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and European foreign ministers in 2014. "All these obligations remained on paper. Moreover, this document basically became a screen for the subsequent coup d’etat in that country (Ukraine - TASS)," Peskov pointed out, noting that the Kremlin was monitoring the situation with agreements on Kosovo closely.

During talks in North Macedonia’s Ohrid, which were mediated by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Lajcak, Serbia and Kosovo reached accord on a number of positions of the agreement on ways to normalize their relations, in particular, on the implementation of the coordinated draft agreement on the Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija. Otherwise, Belgrade refuses to move forward with normalization with Pristina.

The Brussels agreements on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina dated April 19, 2013 envisage the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities - a self-governing body of Serbs living in the unrecognized republic of Kosovo. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has repeatedly stressed that his country has fulfilled its part of the Brussels agreements, whereas the Kosovars only began drafting the Community’s charter but then gave up on the process.