Russia renews support for Serbs over Kosovo

By Oleg Shchedrov

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Russia's likely next president, Dmitry Medvedev, told Serbian leaders on Monday there would be no shift in Moscow's support for Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo.

Medvedev, the Kremlin-backed frontrunner for president, met pro-Western President Boris Tadic and nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who has long leaned on Moscow for help against the secession of Serbia's southern province.

"The point of my brief visit was to express support to Serbia" at a time when it faces Kosovo's secession, Medvedev said. "We assume Serbia is a single state whose jurisdiction covers all of its territory. We will stick to this position."

Currently Russia's first deputy prime minister, Medvedev is expected to win a presidential election on Sunday. He was traveling with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a signal that Russian support for Belgrade would continue after his election.

He said the February 17 declaration of independence by Kosovo's Albanian majority leaders had "destroyed the international system and international law that mankind has been building for more than one hundred years".

"The declaration of independence has complicated the situation in the region and in southern Europe," Medvedev said. "This decision will project on to other regions, where problems of status of separate territories are acute.

IN THE PIPELINE

As part of his visit, he signed an agreement with Belgrade to create a joint company to build the Serbian arm of the South Stream pipeline, a 10-billion-euro ($14.65-billion) project by Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI to bring gas to Europe.

The deal under which Serbia joined South Stream in exchange for allowing Gazprom to buy control of Serbian oil monopoly NIS was widely seen as a politically-motivated agreement meant to thank Russia for its support on the issue of Kosovo.

"This agreement shows that apart from the political aspect, the cooperation between Serbia and Russia is ongoing on all levels," said Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, a nationalist who favors cooling ties with the West over its support for Kosovo's independence.

He has ordered the withdrawal of Serb ambassadors from the countries that have recognized Kosovo and was the main force between the agreement on South Stream in January over the objections of his liberal coalition partners.

"There cannot be a normalization of relations with states that have recognized Kosovo's independence until they annul their decision," Kostunica said.

Belgrade lost control of Kosovo in 1999, when NATO expelled Serb forces accused of ethnic cleansing while fighting a guerrilla war. The United Nations supervised the territory for almost nine years, and the EU is due to take over by summer.

(additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Writing by Douglas Hamilton and Ellie Tzortzi; Editing by Ralph Boulton)