Key powers, Russia included, replacing ambassadors in Serbia

The daily Vecernje Novosti writes this on Tuesday, adding that Berlin has already announced a replacement for Axel Dittmann - Thomas Schild, previously a part of the German UN mission. The mandate of UK Ambassador Denis Keefe is expiring as well, and his successor is expected to arrive here in the fall.

The Russian embassy, headed for six years by Aleksandr Chepurin, will also see changes. Chepurin should retire after his service in Serbia while the Kremlin could replace him with Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko, who has excellent knowledge of the Balkan circumstances, and is a proven friend to the Serbs, the newspaper writes.

Kharchenko is considered a problem-solving expert in the Russian diplomacy, whom President Vladimir Putin sends to countries under Western pressure. Kharchenko was Russia's ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina from 2009 to 2014, and before that, Russia's long-standing representative in the Contact Group and, along with US and EU diplomats, a representative in the mediation trio set up to resolve the status issue of Kosovo and Metohija.

He was also a member of the Russian delegation during the Dayton peace talks and the peace conference on Bosnia-Herzegovina in Paris.

Berlin and London are also expected to appoint experienced career diplomats as their new ambassadors in Belgrade, bearing in mind that in the coming period the Kosovo issue and Serbia's accession to the European Union will be at the top of the agenda.

At the end of his four-year mandate is also Chinese Ambassador Li Manchang, but diplomatic circles believe Beijing is unlikely to make changes in its "outpost" in Belgrade at this time.

Namely, it is thought that introducing a new diplomat "into the game" would not be productive...