Protesters throw torches at riot police near the U.S. embassy in Belgrade February 21, 2008.
Photo: Reuters
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Russia Is Behind Serbian Extremists, Holbrooke Said
Riots near the U.S. embassy in Belgrade is the result of Russia’s support of Serbian extremists, said Richard Holbrooke, top foreign advisor in the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and once the negotiator in the Balkans.
“The fact that [declaring independence has] not happened as peacefully as people had hoped is the direct result of the incitement to violence by extremist elements in Belgrade, implicitly and privately supported by the Russians,” Richard Holbrooke told CNN in live air.
Holbrooke, chief architect of the Dayton peace accords for former Yugoslavia, is notorious for his anti-Russian rhetoric.
Far back past April, when the Ahtisaari plan was under discussion, Holbrooke said: “Kosovo will become independent. It's inevitable. But the Russians are encouraging the hard-liners in Belgrade by opposing the Ahtisaari plan and that is very unhelpful. And if the Ahtisaari plan is not approved by the UN Security Council when it comes up for decision next month, there will be violence in Kosovo, and that will be the consequence of Russian actions, and they should be held fully accountable for that if it happens.”
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