Russia's Deputy PM Pledges Support to Serbia on Kosovo
By VOA News
25 February 2008
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has told Serbian leaders there will be no shift in his country's support for Serb sovereignty over Kosovo.
Medvedev and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are in Belgrade for talks with Serbia's pro-western President Boris Tadic and nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
Medvedev says Moscow's position is that Serbia is a single state whose jurisdiction covers all of its territory.
Medvedev is expected to win next Sunday's presidential election in Russia, and follow Vladimir Putin as the leader of the country.
Russia and Serbia also signed a $1.5 billion gas deal designed to bring Russian gas to Western Europe through a new pipeline to run from the Black Sea through Serbia.
Medvedev is chairman of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, the lead company behind the South Stream pipeline deal along with Italy's ENI.
He and Lavrov are the first high-ranking foreign officials to visit Serbia since Belgrade protesters burned a portion of the U.S. Embassy last week.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that U.S. support for the breakaway region of Kosovo was an act of "flagrant cynicism."
The Russian accusation follows a remark Saturday by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, who accused Russia of aggravating tensions in the Balkans.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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