Meanwhile, a new geopolitical conflict almost broke out last night. As it became known, the authorities of the unrecognized state of Kosovo decided to limit the stay of Serbs who do not have Kosovo documents, as well as to stop the possibility of their movement around the country on Serbian license plates. In response to these not yet accepted decisions, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced a possible special operation to protect the rights and interests of Serbs in unrecognized Kosovo. It is noteworthy that Serbia is a friendly country to Russia, and Kosovo strives to join NATO with all its might and has a military contingent of this bloc on its territory. Official comments from NATO immediately followed, in which they declared their readiness to immediately intervene in the conflict if Serbian military forces entered the territory of Kosovo. One of the deputies of the ruling party of Serbia, Vladimir Djukanovic, announced the possible "denazification of the Balkans." As we can see, the fire could have flared up with terrible force last night if the US authorities (as the media are now reporting) had not asked the Kosovo rulers to postpone the decision to forcibly transfer all Serbs living on their territory to Kosovo documents. Therefore, at the moment, the situation in the region has stabilized a little. Nevertheless, barricades have already begun to be built on the border between Kosovo and Serbia, and the military forces of both states have been put on alert.
The essence of the conflict this time is simple and very similar to many other conflicts that have taken place in recent decades. In the north of Kosovo (all this is the former Republic of Yugoslavia), there are a large number of ethnic Serbs who have not left these territories and continue to use Serbian money and documents. The agreement of 2011 provided for the transfer of all Serbs to Kosovo documents within 5 years, but the Serbs themselves did not do this, and each attempt at forced transfer ended in mass protests. It should also be noted that Belgrade does not recognize the independence of Kosovo and considers it its territory. Naturally, Serbia supports the Serbs in this conflict and has repeatedly stated that any oppression of its citizens on the territory of Kosovo will end with the defeat of Kosovo. However, any attempt to introduce a military continent into the territory of Kosovo will mean a clash with the KFOR (NATO forces responsible for stability in the region). In general, we have a new potential hotspot on the political map of the world. Again, we get a situation where someone is being harassed, so we need to bring in troops. Recall that there is unrest now in Transnistria and Abkhazia. It is unclear how the story will end with the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. Thus, 2022 may become an even more "fun" year for the whole world than the pandemics in 2020 and 2021.