Ivic: US recognition of Crimea would create a certain degree of paranoia in Pristina

Petar Ivic, a fellow at the Pupin Initiative, stated that US recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea could produce a certain degree of paranoia in Pristina, fearing that Serbia might try to apply a similar scenario to Kosovo.

“As a result of formal US recognition of Crimea, there could be a certain level of paranoia within the Pristina administration that something similar might happen to them from Serbia, even though that is completely unrealistic in reality, given that Serbia has shown calm and constructiveness in the dialogue,” Ivic told Kosovo Online.

Commenting on the possibility that US President Donald Trump could cede Crimea to Russia in exchange for ending the war in Ukraine, Ivic said that the declaration of Kosovo’s independence in 2008 served as a political and historical precedent that Russia later used for its own purposes.

“The events in Kosovo from 2008 to the present actually triggered what is happening with Crimea. The situation in Kosovo represents a political and historical precedent that Vladimir Putin used in his attempt to annex that territory and legitimize it through history and politics, and he saw that precedent in what happened with Kosovo in 2008,” Ivic stated.

He emphasized that Kosovo and Crimea have more differences than similarities.

“The first difference is that in 2008 Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, while in this case, we don’t have independence of the Crimean region but rather its annexation into the Russian Federation. Kosovo’s unilateral declaration happened in an illegitimate but peaceful way, while Crimea’s annexation occurred through armed intervention in 2014,” Ivic explained.