MOSCOW, July 31 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has appointed the foreign minister's special representative for the Balkans as special envoy to a troika as part of the Kosovo Contact Group, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko will represent Russia in the troika which is being established and comprises Russia, the EU, and the United States as part of the Contact Group for Kosovo, also involving France, Italy, and Germany.
The Contact Group members agreed July 25 to establish the troika to mediate during new talks on the status of Kosovo between Belgrade and Pristina.
Determining the status of the province has been on the international agenda since NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia ended a conflict between Serb forces and Muslim Albanian separatists in 1999. The region has remained a UN protectorate ever since.
Moscow has repeatedly said a solution must be based on a compromise between Belgrade and Pristina, and that the position of ethnic minorities in the region should also be considered.
