Russian official denies "deal" with US, EU on Kosovo - Serbian daily
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - May 31, 2007, Thursday

Text of report by Serbian newspaper Glas javnosti on 29 May

[Report by "D.M.": "No Haggling - Only Talks and Compromise", p2]

Belgrade - The Russian Foreign Ministry denied for Glas javnosti yesterday [28 May] the alarming reports that have appeared in some media in the region according to which the United States and the European Union have struck a deal with Moscow about adopting a new resolution on Kosovo-Metohija whereby Russia would not lodge a veto in exchange for some of its own conditions being granted. According to these speculations, there would be a two-year moratorium on an independent Kosovo's membership in the United Nations. Fortunately, Moscow has already discarded this scenario two weeks ago, when it was first put forth by the International Crisis Group by way of softening [UN special envoy Martti] Ahtisaari's plan and the West's resolution.

Russian Foreign Ministry official Andrey Vladimirovich Krivtsov [name as published] ruled out the possibility yesterday of Moscow agreeing to anything other than new negotiations and a negotiated settlement. Thus, according to him, there are no grounds for the Croatian Jutarnji List's suggestion that Russians would be appeased by a return to Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] of their troops, "which would be deployed to the Serb enclaves." The paper says that Russia's third condition has to do with the enlargement of NATO which, for Russia's sake, would not invite Ukraine and Georgia to join at the next meeting in Bucharest.

"These are only groundless media stories. There is no truth to them nor is Moscow planning any such thing. We have not altered our position that we have reaffirmed on more than one occasion. We have no intention of deploying troops to Kosovo, but we do have an intention of insisting on new direct negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina," Krivtsov stressed.

In connection with increasingly frequent speculations of late that the province could be divided, which is what Yelena Guskova [name as published], director in the Russian Academy of Science, directly spoke about on 27 May, Krivtsov said that these were "personal opinions, not official policy."

"The first I heard about the idea of dividing Kosmet was from a German commentator, but these are only private views and nothing more. We are prepared to discuss the Kosovo problem at the G8 summit. At the preliminary stage, during preparations for the meeting, we did not discuss a request for new negotiations, but nobody can predict what will happen there and perhaps somebody will make such a request as well," Krivtsov explained, adding that Kosmet would certainly be an important topic of discussion at the meeting of the heads of state or government of the G8 countries in the German resort of Heiligendam.

As a prelude to that event, the G8 foreign ministers will be meeting in Potsdam near Berlin tomorrow [30 May] and it is only after their consultations that the topics of discussion at the G-8 summit a week later will be known. For Kosovo itself, which will certainly be in the focus of attention, because all permanent members of the UN Security Council except China will be at the meeting, this will be a "round of talks" that will be an accurate indication of how the status issue will be dealt with in the future. Strong pressure is expected to be brought to bear on Russia to speed up the process, but a repetition of the Samara meeting is not being ruled out, either, if announcements from the Russian Foreign Ministry are anything to go by.

According to Glas javnosti's unofficial information, diplomatic sources in Moscow are talking about a plan according to which the Russian ambassador in Belgrade should take delivery of a document (an initiative for resuming negotiations) adopted by the Serbian government on Friday [25 May] and pass it on to the Kremlin; Russia should then present the concept at Heiligendam as a platform for new talks. Some circles in Moscow interpret the initiative as Serbia's openness to a compromise: if all of Kosmet cannot stay in Serbia, then perhaps it should be divided.

Source: Glas javnosti, Belgrade, in Serbian 29 May 07

Copyright 2007 British Broadcasting Corporation
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