MOSCOW RENEWS SUPPORT FOR SERBS
Chinadaily.com.cn - February 26, 2008 Tuesday

Russia's likely next president, Dmitry Medvedev, told Serbian leaders yesterday there would be no shift in his country's support for Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo.

"We assume that Serbia is a single state whose jurisdiction covers all of its territory," Medvedev said."We will stick to this position." Medvedev met pro-Western President Boris Tadic and nationalist PrimeMinister Vojislav Kostunica, who has long leaned on Moscow for help against the secession of Serbia's southernprovince.

Currently Russia's first deputy prime minister, Medvedev is expected to win a presidential election on Sunday.He was travelling with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a signal that Russian support for Belgrade would continue afterhis election.

Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin have condemned the February 17 secession of Kosovo and charged the UnitedStates and major European Union states with breaching international law by recognizing it as independent.

In a statement on Sunday, the Russian foreign ministry again demanded a "compromise" on Kosovo. It alsorecalled that Russia had a peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo from 1999 to 2004 - possibly pointing to plans to propose areturn of Russian troops to the territory, in ethnic Serb areas that resist Albanian rule.

Serbia intends to rule parts of Kosovo where "loyal citizens" still look to Belgrade for government, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said yesterday.

Kostunica said protest rallies against the new republic would continue and there would be no normalization of tieswith capitals which had accepted it, until they changed policy.

"Serbia will do everything to implement its jurisdiction and state prerogatives for all loyal citizens in Kosovo- Serbs and non-Albanians," Kostunica said.

"There cannot be normalization of relations with the states that recognized Kosovo independence until they annul their decision. Protest rallies will not stop as long as illegal independence is not annulled."

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