Russia-Serbia gas deal "show of support on Kosovo"

By Denis Dyomkin

UFA, Russia (Reuters) - A deal to bring Serbia into Russia's South Stream gas pipeline project is a show of support for Belgrade over Kosovo, Dmitry Medvedev, the man likely to be elected Russia's new president, said on Tuesday.

Medvedev's remarks were the first public acknowledgement by Moscow, which is fiercely opposed to Kosovo's independence, that it is backing up its diplomatic solidarity with Serbia over the issue with its huge energy clout as well.

A close ally of Russia's outgoing President Vladimir Putin, first deputy prime minister Medvedev, on Monday flew to Belgrade in a show of support six days before a Russian presidential election that he is almost certain to win.

The gas deal was intended to show "our support, moral, material and economic, for a state which is in a very difficult position, a state which unfortunately, by the will of a number of other states, has had its territorial integrity put in doubt," Medvedev said.

"Measures are being taken to break it up into pieces. I mean of course the Kosovo problem," he said on a campaign visit to Ufa, in the Ural mountains region of Bashkortostan.

"We of course cannot stand by and watch. We have expressed our position long ago. It has not changed."

"We are categorically against the act of unilateral recognition of Kosovo, we believe it is an abuse of existing principles. These actions go against the existing system of international law, the United Nations charter and a mass of other international conventions."

South Stream is a 10 billion euro ($15 billion) project jointly led by Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom and Italian energy giant ENI. Medvedev is chairman of Gazprom.

Once completed, it will carry Russian gas to southern Europe via the Black Sea. It is in competition with the Nabucco project, a scheme backed by the European Union and the United States, to supply Caspian Sea gas to Europe.

Russia and Serbia signed a deal late last month in Moscow to route the South Stream pipeline through Serbian territory. The two sides agreed a timetable for construction of the Serbian stretch during Medvedev's visit to Belgrade on Monday.

(Writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Andrew Roche)