A delegation of the Russian Defense Ministry arrived in Serbia amid tensions around Kosovo
A delegation of the Russian Ministry of Defense led by the commander of the Western Military District, Colonel General Alexander Zhuravlev, arrived in Serbia for negotiations with the leadership of the local military department. The visit takes place against the backdrop of a new aggravation of the situation around Kosovo, which was illegally seized from Serbia by Albanian separatists with the support of the West.
Zhuravlev met in the city of Nis with the commander of the Land Army, Lieutenant General Milosav Simovic, Sputnik reported.
The main topics of the negotiations are training of personnel for the Serbian army; joint exercises are planned for the second half of 2019.
The Russian delegation visited the Miya Stanimirovich barracks in Niš, where they attended a presentation of the training of units of the third brigade of ground forces and mixed artillery brigades, and also visited the Yug base, where the capabilities of the Multinational Operations Unit Training Center were demonstrated to the guests from Russia.
Zhuravlev also held separate meetings with Defense Minister Alexander Vulin and Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Milan Mojsilović.
Vulin thanked representatives of the Russian army for their participation in the recently held parade in Niš to celebrate Victory Day.
Let us recall that the situation around Kosovo has been deteriorating recently.
As PolitNavigator reported , the recent negotiations in Berlin regarding the fate of Kosovo failed to produce results – the Albanian separatist leadership abandoned the search for a compromise solution and demanded that their US patrons be brought into the negotiations.
Pristina yesterday put forward territorial claims to Serbia's second city, Niš.
During a visit to Moscow, Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin stated that NATO is arming Albanian terrorists.
Kosovo, in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution, is attempting to legalize its armed forces as an army. Separatist units are participating in NATO exercises for the first time.
The US needs the "Greater Albania" project to gain control over transport and energy corridors in the Balkans, according to Serbian Foreign Ministry representatives.
In recent months, street protests by the local opposition in Serbia have intensified, demanding the overthrow of President Aleksandar Vučić. Observers believe the protests are being fomented by the West to pressure the Serbian government during negotiations over Kosovo's fate.
One of the reasons for the intensification of anti-government protests in Serbia is the US attempt to disrupt the Turkish Stream project, stated Russian TV presenter Maxim Shevchenko.
Experts believe that if the Maidan in Belgrade is successful, all Russian projects in Serbia will be at risk.
Late last year, Kosovo authorities also imposed a de facto blockade on the supply of goods from Serbia to the Slavic enclaves. Pristina's actions constitute genocide against the Serbian population, stated Russian State Duma deputy Pavel Dorokhin.
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the actions of the authorities in Pristina.
If the new round of the Kosovo crisis develops toward a violent scenario, Albanian separatists could recruit ISIS militants, a terrorist organization banned in Russia, to provoke the Serbian population . Russian experts warned of this in their report.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is expected to visit Serbia . Negotiations are expected on Kosovo, as well as on Belgrade's acquisition of new weapons from Moscow. Some of this equipment was already on display at the Victory Day parade.
A Russian Defense Ministry delegation arrived in Serbia amid tensions around Kosovo.