"I have proof" / Albin Kurti's strong statement: the Northern Brigade, the Wagner Group and the Night Wolves were at the barricades in the north

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has openly stated that there were Russian groups at the barricades erected in the North of Kosovo. In an interview with NRC, Kurti says that masked men with signs of the Russian militia Wagner, the Night Wolves (a Russian motorcycle gang loyal to Putin) and the so-called Northern Brigade. Kurta emphasizes that there is evidence for this, which he submitted to the Prosecutor's Office, but he cannot make it public. According to Kurt, the point of view of the cameras showing the members of these three groups would betray the source, if the footage was made public.

"Their barricades are not a Parisian student uprising, they are led by combat-ready, uniformed, masked and armed men acting on behalf of Belgrade. War criminals and common criminals have joined forces. This is life threatening. A slogan we see among Serbs is: 'Pray to God and believe in Russia'. Nowhere in Europe is the support for Putin so great. This is what we fight: Moscow fascism and allies. People are being bussed in from Serbia to man the barricades. We have evidence that these are masked men with the insignia of the Russian Wagner militia, the Night Wolves (a Russian motorcycle gang loyal to Putin) and the so-called Northern Brigade. The position from which photos and videos are taken may betray our sources.

He also mentions the risk of another genocide.

"As long as Vucic cannot distance himself from the previous Serbian genocide, we will have to wait for the next one. If NATO was not here, the Serbs would massacre us again. I don't know if they are capable of this, but I know that they would aim for it," he adds.

The barricades that blocked the north of Kosovo for more than 1 month were finally removed on January 3. Earlier, KFOR also announced that the operation to remove vehicles blocked on the road was being carried out to restore freedom of movement in that area.

For 20 days in a row, in December 2022, in the four northern municipalities inhabited by a majority of Serbs, barricades were placed on the roads leading to the Kosovo-Serbia border points. The barricades were set up in protest at the arrest of a former Kosovo Serb police officer who, according to Kosovo authorities, is suspected of organizing an attack on the offices of the Central Election Commission in the north. However, the Serbs decided to remove the barricades after Dejan Pantic's security measure was changed from detention to house arrest. Likewise, the representatives of the Serbs in Kosovo, during a meeting in Raška, Serbia, with the Serbian president, Aleksandër Vucic, on December 28 declared that they had received guarantees that the demands of the Serbs for the removal of the barricades would be met.