Sanction threats to Belgrade sign of West’s weakness — ex-Serbian envoy to Russia

BELGRADE (TASS): Appeals of the authorities of the unrecognized republic of Kosovo to impose sanctions against Serbia and its President Aleksandar Vucic are a demonstration of the West’s and NATO’s ineffective policy towards both Serbia and Russia, Slavenko Terzic, former Serbian ambassador to Russia (2013-2019), member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Doctor of Historical Sciences, told TASS.

“Regarding sanctions, I think that the policy of sanctions, and this has proven many times in history, does not lead to anything, this also applies to sanctions against Russia. I do not rule out that maybe some sanctions could be imposed against Serbia, but this is an extension, I would say, of the West’s and NATO’s one absolutely ineffective policy towards both Russia and Serbia,” Terzic believes.

“As for the statement of the so-called President [of the unrecognized republic of Kosovo, Vjosa] Osmani, in my opinion, there is nothing new here and it is just an extension of one, I would say, wild blackmail with the support of the US and its allies”.

The former ambassador also noted that Pristina “has the support of Western allies and continues the blackmail” to “violently complete what was done by NATO in its aggression in 1999.”

“I think it is only possible to solve the problems of Kosovo and Metohija with dialog, constructive dialog, not with sanctions or propaganda cliches,” Terzic concluded.

Osmani, after arriving at the European Political Community Summit in Spain’s Granada, told reporters that dialog between Belgrade and Pristina is going to be possible only after the EU imposes restrictions against Serbia and its president.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama also previously stressed that the EU should take action against Belgrade, which showed an “unacceptable” reaction to the incident in northern Kosovo and Metohija that killed a Kosovo policeman and three Serbs.

The prime minister of the unrecognized republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, had earlier claimed that masked gunmen, with the support of Serbian authorities, attacked police officers in the north of the province on the night of September 24, killing one policeman. Vucic later claimed in an address to the nation that Kosovo police units had killed three Serbs and that NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) representatives had effectively given Kurti carte blanche to kill Serbs in the north. He said KFOR assisted Kosovo police in an operation against local Serbs. Vucic added that after what happened, Belgrade would never recognize the province’s independence.