Russia calls on Pristina to stop provocations and observe Serbs’ rights — diplomat

MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. Russia calls on Pristina and the United States and the European Union who are backing it to stop provocations and observe the rights of Serbs in Kosovo, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.

"We call on Pristina and the United States and the European Union backing it to stop provocation and observe the Serbs’ rights in Kosovo," she said.

According to Zakharova, Pristina’s decision "to begin the use of ungrounded discriminatory ‘rules’ on mandatory change of identification documents and car plates of the local Serbs from August 1 is another step to oust the Serbian population from Kosovo, to squeeze out institutions of the Kosovo Serbs, which defend the rights of ethnic Serbs from the arbitrariness of the Pristina radicals led by ‘Prime Minister’ Albin Kurti."

"The Kosovar leaders know that the Serbs will not stay indifferent when it comes to a direct attack on their freedom and are deliberately seeking to aggravate the situation to trigger a force scenario. Naturally, Belgrade is at the forefront of the attack, since the West is seeking to ‘neutralize’ it by means of the Kosovo Albanians," she said.

She stressed that such development of the situation is another evidence that the European Union’s mediatory mission has failed. "It is also an example of what the European Union thinks about the role of Belgrade, which, as a matter of fact, is supposed to put up with the deprivation of rights of its compatriots," she added.