ASTANA. Nov 18 (Interfax) - An appeal by 20,000 Kosovar Serbs asking for Russian citizenship is not an attempt to emigrate but a request for help, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said.
"I think that this request was not so much about emigration or an attempt to relocate, but it was precisely a request for protection," he said at a briefing after talks with Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov in Astana on Friday.
"It is obvious that Serbs who live in Kosovo live in very difficult conditions there. Under the United Nations Resolution N1244, they must be protected by the international communities present there," Jeremic said.
"But obviously, they do not feel sufficiently protected. According to this resolution, Serbia has neither administrative resources nor the capability in terms of security to ensure such conditions," he said.
"For their part, they felt that the most favorable and strongest side in this issue could be that of our partner and our friend - the Russian Federation," the minister added.
"I think the issue, which in this situation needs to be raised before an international community - is why Serbs do not feel safe," the Serbian foreign minister said.
It was reported on November 14 that more than 20,000 Kosovar Serbs and people displaced from Kosovo want to get Russian citizenship and this number is likely to increase.
The application for Russian citizenship was submitted both by those living in Kosovo and those who were displaced from or fled this province to other Serbian regions, Russian Embassy to Serbia First Secretary Oleg Buldakov told Interfax.
"Fears for our own safety" was cited by the applicants as the main reason for their request, the diplomat said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry familiarized itself with the request of several thousand Kosovo Serbs for Russian citizenship and it understands the reasons behind it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on November 17.
"We have read this request attentively, of course, and we will have to act guided by a number of factors," Lavrov said.
Concerning the legal aspect of this problem, we have a law in Russia which regulates instances when Russian citizenship is granted to foreign nationals, he said.
"From the political point of view, we very well understand the motives behind the Kosovo Serbs' request of this kind," Lavrov said.
"They have found themselves in a desperate situation and they have the feeling of hopelessness in conditions when they are being forced to obey the Pristina dictate in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and when they can even lose the right to local self-government. Too bad that all this is happening with connivance and direct support from the Kosovo Force, led by NATO, and the European Union's so-called Rule of Law Mission," Lavrov said.
These "international presences" are operating in violation of the "neutral-status mandate they have," he said.
"We will be firmly opposing this in the future and we think that no one should usurp the role of ruler of the destinies of nations, especially Kosovo Serbs, wherever they live, using opportunities provided by international or Russian law," he said.
On February 17, 2008, the Albanian authorities in Kosovo, supported by the United States and a number of the European Union countries, unilaterally declared their independence from Serbia. Belgrade and Kosovar Serbs refused to recognize the self-proclaimed state. Several countries, including Russia, opposed the declaration of the province's independence.
The Serbian community currently accounts for 5%-10% of Kosovo's two million population, media outlets said.