Besnik Bislimi made the remark in an interview with Britain’s Times Radio, Polish state news agency PAP reported on Thursday.
He said: “There is a tendency of Russia to deviate or distract the focus from Ukraine by opening new country’s zones."
He added, as quoted by the politico.eu news service: “There is recorded evidence that people in the [Serbian] paramilitary are being supported by the Humanitarian Centre, a Russian centre.”
Established in 2012 by the governments of Serbia and Russia, the Humanitarian Centre is based in the southern Serbian city of Niš, the PAP news agency reported.
The organisation aims to offer emergency-response training courses, help those affected by disasters and remove the fallout from NATO’s 1999 bombings of the former Yugoslavia, according to PAP.
The Humanitarian Centre has sparked controversy, with the US State Department warning that the organisation might become Russia’s “intelligence centre,” the Polish news agency reported.
The European Parliament has called for the Humanitarian Centre’s work to be made more transparent, according to Serbia’s Pro-European Danas newspaper.
'Nobody is denying the presence of Russia and the influence of Russia'
In his interview with Times Radio on Wednesday, Kosovo’s Bislimi said, as cited by politico.eu: “If you want more details, to understand how easily Russia can use this for conflicts, the recent attacks of these troops in Kosovo, started during night, most probably heavily drunk people inside barricades because they’re being supplied with a lot of alcohol, financial incentives, and all of this from the Humanitarian Centre."
He added: "Nobody is denying the presence of Russia and the influence of Russia.”
The latest tensions on the Serbia-Kosovo border broke out on December 10, when a former Kosovo Serb policeman named Dejan Pantić was arrested for assaulting a serving police officer, the Reuters news agency reported.
Since then, Serbs in northern Kosovo have exchanged fire with police and built more than 10 roadblocks, demanding Pantic’s release, according to news outlets.
On Wednesday, Pantić was released from custody and put under house arrest after a request from the prosecutors' office, Reuters reported, citing a spokesperson for the Basic Court in the Kosovo capital Pristina.
After Pantić’s release, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced a plan to remove the roadblocks that was set to come into effect around noon on Thursday, the PAP news agency reported.
On Thursday morning, Kosovo police confirmed that some of the trucks that had been blocking roads in the north of the country had been set ablaze.
The Medere border crossing, which had been barricaded on the Serbian side on Tuesday, was reopened on Thursday, according to PAP.
Meanwhile, the trucks that have been blocking the roads of northern Kosovo have not yet been removed, PAP also reported, citing Radio Free Europe.
On Wednesday, the EU and the United States issued a joint statement about the events on the Serbia-Kosovo border, urging “maximum restraint” and stressing that Pristina and Belgrade should “refrain from provocations, threats or intimidation” over the mounting tensions, according to politico.eu.
Thursday is day 309 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Reuters, politico.eu