Kosovo will declare independence from Serbia with Western backing the weekend after the February 3 Serbian presidential election if nationalist Nikolic wins, political sources said on Wednesday.
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Serbian Presidential Hopeful Visits Moscow
Serbian Radical Party leader and candidate in this weekend’s Serbian presidential run-off Tomislav Nikolic visited Moscow on Wednesday. Mr. Nikolic was hoping that this would prove that Moscow does not support his rival, incumbent Boris Tadic, on the campaign trail. But the visit most likely did more damage than good to standing of the presidential hopeful.
Tomislav Nikolic’s visit was put in jeopardy after incumbent Serbian President Boris Tadic came to Moscow last Friday to hold talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The two presidents attended the ceremony to sign a milestone Russian-Serbian oil and gas deal. Experts in Belgrade viewed the visit as Moscow’s infallible support for Boris Tadic in this weekend’s run-off. Tomislav Nikolic decided to cancel his visit to Moscow which was scheduled for Monday’s session of the Duma’s international affairs committee. But the Kremlin clearly did not want a scandal. Meanwhile, Mr. Nikolic’s entourage insisted that their leader be received by top officials, Kommersant sources report.
Tomislav Nikolic flew in to Moscow on a small private jet Tuesday night to meet Fair Russia’s leader Sergey Mironov who initially invited him. Wednesday morning, the Serbian presidential candidate met Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov. Fair Russia’s Alexander Babakov who attended the meeting said that Mr. Nikolic made it the point that “Russia is Serbia’s main political partner” and in his possible presidency he will “insist on the expansion of cooperation between the two countries not only in economics and politics but in other fields as well”.
Later Wednesday afternoon Mr. Nikolic finally met Dmitry Medvedev to discuss economical bilateral relations and the Kosovo issue. Mr. Medvedev mentioned recent progress in the relations such as the signing of the gas and oil agreement that was attended by Mr. Nikolic’s rival Boris Tadic.
On his way back to Serbia Tomislav Nikolic admitted that the sole aim of this visit four days before the vote was to “get rid of the wrong impression that Russia supports one of the candidates”. However, Vladimir Putin’s talks with Boris Tadic apparently points to the contrary. What is more, Tomislav Nikolic made a big mistake introducing Slobodan Milosevic’s brother Borislav to Dmitry Medvedev as “a symbol of the bond between Russia and Serbia”. The Serbian Radical Party leader has thus confirmed Boris Tadic’s point that the radicals’ rise to power will take Serbia back to Slobodan Milosevic’s time.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 31, 2008
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