Russia’s Involvement in the Kosovo Case: Defending Serbian Interests or Securing Its Own Influence in Europe?

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines Russia’s involvement in the Kosovo question. It shows that the Russian leadership has generally favored the Serbian authorities, but more importantly for its own influence, that it felt the urge to oppose the 1999 NATO intervention and the post-interventionist Western rhetoric. The argument that Russia has been primarily concerned with strengthening its own position and that involvement in the Kosovo question was expected to serve such an ambition can also be better understood by looking at some recent discrepancies. Namely, the fact that Russia has strongly insisted on the principle of territorial integrity in the case of Serbia but then completely ignored it in the case of Ukraine shows that its loud advocacy of Serbian territorial integrity was merely a strategic instrument to be deployed in European official debates, especially when the post-1999 discussions about Kosovo’s final status took place.