Russia closely monitoring tense situation in Kosovo - Kremlin

The Kremlin said on Monday it was closely monitoring what it called the tense and "potentially dangerous" situation in Kosovo, where ethnic Serb gunmen stormed a village at the weekend, battling police and barricading themselves into a monastery.

Russia does not recognise Kosovo, which has a majority ethnic Albanian population, as an independent country and traditionally supports Serbia, with which it has close religious and cultural ties.

"In Kosovo we see a traditionally biased attitude towards the Serbs. The situation is very tense and potentially dangerous, we are monitoring it very closely," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular news briefing.