MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. There are no real prospects for Belgrade and Pristina to reach agreements on normalization of relations as long as the West continues its policy on unrecognized Kosovo, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said.
Speaking on the Rossiya-24 TV channel, the senior diplomat pointed out that the self-proclaimed government of Kosovo was behaving in an "absolutely arrogant" manner. "It is escalating the situation with the encouragement or inaction of the West," he stressed. "The situation in Kosovo is escalating, there is systematic harassment of Serbs, there is an attack on Serbian sacred sites, in fact, Albanians are seizing local self-government bodies by force."
According to the senior diplomat, the West is silent, "at best it makes general statements about peace, to both sides, although [Serbia] has made every effort to bring this process into the mainstream of agreements." "The West not only encourages these militant antics of the Kosovo regime, but also continues to push Kosovo towards sovereignty, in particular there is a creeping process of Kosovo's admission to the Council of Europe and some other international organizations. This will only encourage the Kosovo authorities, who will continue this policy because they feel such a positive attitude from the West. As long as this line of the West continues, there will be no real prospects for reaching agreements," Grushko pointed out.
According to the diplomat, the West's main goal is to separate the province from Kosovo, grant it independence, and join NATO and the EU as soon as possible, so the Kosovo authorities are counting on continued support. "It is being carried out until the last day, if you ignore the useless information coming from various European capitals, precisely to achieve this goal," he added. "Everything is being done to achieve the main plan that the West developed when it dismembered the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," the deputy foreign minister pointed out.
"At the moment, there are really no prospects for a peaceful solution. The Serbian leadership, President Aleksandar Vucic, says so. The situation is very clear. It is also connected with the inability of the West to fulfill its commitments," Grushko noted.