President of Serbia: My decision on Kosovo will end my career

Despite any outcome decision on Kosovo taken by official Belgrade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić does not doubt that it will be his "end in politics", since "the Serbs will never forgive him for a better future he gave them." "Serbs are such: they will never forgive me for their own better future and peace. In Serbia, only great defeats and wars are glorified," Aleksandar Vučić said on May 6 in Belgrade in an interview with the Serbian Kurir tabloid, adding that future agreements on the status of Kosovo would be the end of his political career.

According to Aleksandar Vučić, the Serbian people in their history respected only the generals, and no one else. That's why Vučić is sure that the public will not meet his decision on Kosovo with understanding, but history will appreciate both this decision and the role of Vučić himself as president of Serbia.

Nevertheless, he said, he is not ready to simply agree to the recognition of Kosovo's independence without any concessions to Serbia. "If you think that I am ready to say tomorrow: "Here's an independent Kosovo for you", then I'm not ready for that," he says.

According to Vučić, he hopes that the solution to the Kosovo issue will eventually be achieved, but first he would like to see what Serbia can get "in the territorial and in any other sense."

Nevertheless, Vučić assessed the general situation regarding Kosovo as "terribly difficult" for the Serbian side. "When the international community makes us offer one shade better than all the previous ones, it will be a success. But we will still be unhappy, because everyone keeps Kosovo in their hearts," the Serbian president admitted. But, in spite of emotions, "one must be realistic and realize how much we ourselves contributed to our own defeat," Vučić believes.

He recalled that the real situation shows that there are no more Serbs in Djakovica, Urosevac, Pecsi, Pristina, Klin (municipalities in the southern part of Kosovo), that in Prizren there are exactly as many as are involved in Serbian Orthodox Church working, and in Gnjilane lives 40-50 families.

Answering the question of the journalist, whether he wants to say, that the Serbs do not need a territory where there are no Serbs, Vučić stated that "we do not even control the territory there."

He regretfully stated that "the bad opinion that has developed about the Serbs in the world is the result of bad policies in 2004 and in 2008". Vucic reminded that an independent Kosovo exists since 2008. He said that under his leadership, Serbia managed to "return to the playing field", but "the result on the scoreboard is bad."

Aleksandar Vučić stated that "full normalization of relations with Pristina", or rather, the signing of a legally binding agreement with Kosovo separatists is expected within six months. When asked whether this time is enough for Belgrade to improve its position, he answered in the negative. "No, it's not enough. And the position seriously will not improve. But the little thing that we have ... this small piece of the field must be kept. So that we simply have some kind of security guarantees for the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, so that we can take care of the Serbia’s state-legal interests," Vučić said.

Answering the question, does care for the state-legal interests of Serbia mean that the country should not agree with the place allocation in the UN for Kosovo, Vučić said that there are different options on this issue.

"What this means is a question. There are different options. Let's see what Serbia and the Serbs will get. This is the subject of the conversation," the president said, stressing that he himself does not want to talk about what options are acceptable for him. According to him, if he had stated this publicly, his positions in the negotiations would have significantly worsened.

At the same time, Aleksandar Vučić called his policy towards Kosovo rational, aimed at protecting the independent course of Serbia, stressing that this is different from the policies of his predecessors - Boris Tadic and Vojislav Kostunica. At the same time, he did not criticize them and stated the responsibility of the world community for what had happened.

"They had waited for 2008 the right time to come. Prior to this, the policy of "standards before status" was proclaimed. And then suddenly it happened that everything turned into a "status before standards." Why? Because it was then playing to their hands, they saw that Serbia was weak, divided, the power partly belonged both to Tadić and Kostunica, they quarreled among themselves. Then the international community took the Tadic’s side - do not go into the Kosovo affairs, and you will remain in power. Today, Serbia is stronger," Vučić said.

He also commented on the upcoming visit to the Russian Federation, which will be held on May 8 and 9. In his opinion, frequent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin testify to good dynamics of bilateral relations.

"This shows that in a difficult time for Serbia, Russia is always ready to help, and Serbia is also always ready to help Russia, despite the fact that it is a small and not very strong state on a world scale. Serbia has never stabbed a knife in the back of a friend," Vučić said.

"It will be a special honor for me to attend the Victory Parade in the Great Patriotic War. In the world today, there is a trend to cover the truth about the Second World War," the Serbian President said. According to him, the Russian people gave tens of millions of lives during the war, and the Serbian people lost ten times more than all the other peoples of the former Yugoslavia.

Recall that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić will visit Moscow on May 8 and 9, where he will attend the Victory Parade on Red Square. His meeting with Vladimir Putin is planned. Vučić arrives in Moscow from Ankara, where on May 7 he meets with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.