Russia responds to "Kosovo visas" announcement
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday responded to Kosovo's intention to introduce visas for Russian nationals, said reports from Moscow.
(KosovoCompromiseStuff) Friday, October 05, 2012
Russia does not recognize "that self-declared republic", it has been reiterated.
"Russia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent country and sees it as a part of Serbia, with which Russia has an agreement on visa free travel," a statement said.
In practice, the issue of Russians traveling to Kosovo is not important, since the number of such visits is insignificant, the MFA added.
The statement also contains a warning to Russian citizens to consider carefully before deciding to travel to those parts of Kosovo that are governed by the authorities in Pristina.
The Kosovo Albanian authorities in Priština said on Thursday that visas would be introduced for Russian citizens as such a move would be "in line with the harmonization of Kosovo's legislation with EU demands, especially regarding countries outside of the Schengen area".
