Serbs resume protests against Kosovo's independence

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Several thousand Serbs chanting "Russia, Vladimir Putin!" and "Kosovo is Serbia!" protested peacefully Saturday in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica and a Serb enclave in the south in a sixth day of demonstrations against Kosovo's independence. In a sign that Serbia is fast drifting away from the West and toward Russia, which is backing its fierce resistance of Kosovo's secession, hard-line Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica condemned anew the US and other nations that have recognized Kosovo as an independent state. "If the United States stick to its present position that the fake state of Kosovo exists ... all responsibility in the future will be on the United States," Kostunica adviser Branislav Ristivojevic said in a statement. "The United States is the main culprit ... for all those violent acts," Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, said earlier. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's chosen successor and the man expected to easily win Russia's presidential election March 2, is scheduled to visit Belgrade on Monday.