Another level of Russian propaganda for Kosovo

From annexing Crimea in 2014, to recognizing independence of Donetsk and Luhansk by President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the latter has not halted the trend to compare the situation there with the case of Kosovo. Although the comparisons are unrealistic, Putin seems to be taking revenge on the US and NATO for bombing his only European ally, Serbia, and not only this. There is something else he intends to achieve by making this comparison. Putin’s narratives are to legally justify actions in the Ukraine war. But this does not seem to be a good opportunity to do so, for many reasons. Recently in a meeting with UN Secretary General Guterres, Putin tried again to make a comparison between two completely different cases, the annexation of regions in eastern Ukraine and the process of Kosovo independence declaration. 

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the NATO intervention to stop the Serb genocide on the civilian population of Kosovo are two completely opposite situations, just like the declaration of Kosovo’s Independence and Russia’s recognition of pro-Russian separatist regions in Ukraine also the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, as the referendum is considered to have been rigged. 

In the case of Kosovo, after a nearly two-year war between Kosovo and Serbia who aimed at ethnic cleansing, ordered by Slobodan Milosevic then President of Serbia, more than 15,000 Albanians were killed, and more than a million were expelled from their homes, causing massive destruction of homes and properties. The only armed resistance against the Serbian state was The Kosovo Liberation Army who at then received air support from NATO, which Russia clearly opposed. 

The war in Kosovo ended with the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement on June 11, 1999. Kosovo declared independence on February 17, 2008, nine years after the end of the war. Kosovo’s independence was legitimized by the International Court of Justice two years later, as the Serbian state had requested. The ICJ decision that Kosovo’s independence is in line with international law, proves that the case of Kosovo is not a precedent for any other case in the world. Therefore, Putin’s attempt to draw parallels between the two cases is simply an attempt to undermine the internationally recognized Kosovo Independence, and at the same time to denigrate the image of the ICJ that condemned last month the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a violation of international law.

Putin’s statements have been recently viewed from two sides in Serbia. Media close to Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic consider Putin’s comparison as a recognition of Kosovo’s independence by Russia, while another less realistic view presents the comparison as a good opportunity to initiate North Kosovo`s independence, but that will depend on how much Serbia is willing to risk for such a thing. However, it is clear that Russia will not choose the means and ways to destabilize the Western Balkans, either through Serbia or Republika Srpska. Recall that within a week, the Kosovo police were attacked six times in North Mitrovica, provoking incitement to riots.

As for the security of Kosovo and the region, the Serbian intelligence has hired a professional assassin to kill Dick Marty, in order to blame Kosovo for that. Swiss public television revealed that starting from December 2020, former Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty has been protected by Swiss police. “The threat probably came from certain circles of the Serbian intelligence service that engaged criminal world, professional killers, to liquidate me, simply to put the blame on Kosovars,” Dick Marty said. In December 2010, Marty published a report, for the Council of Europe to adopt, alleging inhuman treatment of people and killing of prisoners with the purpose of removal and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo, involving Hashim Thaçi, the Kosovo prime minister and former Kosovo Liberation Army political leader. The Special Court was established based on this report, which is considered unilateral and contrary to the basic principles of equal law, as it judges only Albanians. 

However, Serbia voted in favor of Russia’s expulsion from the UN Human Rights Council over reports of serious systematic human rights violations and abuses in the war and unprecedented aggression in Ukraine, but that does not mean that Official Belgrade is harmonizing national policies with the EU. Immediately after the vote, Vucic said that Serbia was blackmailed by the EU, as he intended to abstain, but with the vote in favor of Russia’s exclusion from this council, he said that he prevented a “nuclear” attack of sanctions against Serbia. Double player Vucic, after giving the EU a vote in favor of Russia’s expulsion from the UN Human Rights Council, played the “carrot and stick” game against the EU. In a covert operation, he accepted HQ-22 anti-aircraft missile system, thus becoming the first country in Europe to use a Chinese anti-missile system.