Hundreds of Serbian nationalists rallied in Belgrade on Wednesday calling for President Aleksandar Vučić to reject a Western plan to normalise ties with neighbouring Kosovo and pull out of negotiations.
The right-wing protesters shouted “treason” and carried banners studying “no surrender”, as they blocked site visitors sooner than collecting close to the Serbian presidential development in central Belgrade.
The protesters have been additionally strongly pro-Russian, one banner learn: “Betrayal of Kosovo is a betrayal of Russia!”
Serbian media reported that one staff driven via steel fences in opposition to the doorway on the finish of the rally however was once avoided by means of rebellion police from achieving the door.
The protest comes amid efforts by means of US and European Union officers to mediate an answer for the long-standing dispute between Serbia and Kosovo, a former Serbian province whose 2008 declaration of independence Belgrade does now not recognise.
Serbia has trusted Russia and China in its refusal to recognize Kosovo’s independence, which Washington and maximum EU nations again.
Western officers concern Moscow may just use simmering tensions in Kosovo to destabilise the Balkans and avert consideration clear of its invasion of Ukraine.
Serbia’s populist president Vučić has stated he was once in a position to imagine the Western plan. Its provisions have now not been printed but it surely reportedly stipulates that Serbia would now not object to Kosovo’s club in world establishments, together with the United Nations.
In Kosovo’s capital Pristina past due Wednesday, rankings of scholars protested peacefully in opposition to facets of the proposed settlement with Serbia.
In Serbia, pro-Russian right-wing teams have demanded that Belgrade forestall all negotiations over Kosovo however Vučić has stated this may imply the top of Serbia’s integration into the EU and world isolation.
Kosovo declared independence after a conflict in 1998-99 that killed round 13,000 folks.
