The Russian Ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandar Konuzin, on Thursday walked out of a security forum in Belgrade after directing a number of critical observations on Kosovo to participants in the event.
Speaking at the Belgrade Security Forum, Konuzin, dissatisfied with the course of the debate, objected that the current problems in the north of Kosovo were not being discussed, asking "Are there no Serbs in this room?".
Konuzin said that none of the participants in the forum was mentioning that NATO and the Kosovo Force (KFOR) were, as he put it, violating UN Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo by planning to bring Kosovo customs officers to the north of Kosovo.
Noting that there was no one in the forum representing Serb interests, the Russian diplomat said that those interests would be defended at a special UN Security Council session on Kosovo by Russia and Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.
After his 15-minute speech, the Russian ambassador angrily left the forum that was attended by more than 300 officials from Serbia and other European countries, representatives of the European Union and NATO, research institutes, civil society organisations, parliamentarians and reporters.
Before that, President Boris Tadic opened the forum, warning about problems of secession and mentioning Kosovo in that context.
Developments in Kosovo have disrupted the basis of international relations, Tadic said, adding that Serbia would continue to act in the general interest so that in the future the position of the Balkan region could be better than it had been in the past, which he said also required international assistance.
