Russia Stirs Friction in Balkans, as NATO Keeps an Uneasy Peacebr " Mr. Nic said, "they do need to give up on this illusion." Col. Corwin Lusk, the American commander of NATO’s multinational battle group in eastern Kosovo, agreedbr that the Serbian elections were fueling the angrier statements and that Russia was playing games, though he was skeptical that Moscow wanted a direct confrontation in the Balkans. that If they truly want to improve lives of Serbs in Serbia,br The abbot of the monastery, Father Sava Janjic, said the nationalistic talk from Serbia "often comesbr back to us like a boomerang." "Every time they call me from Serbia, they ask: ‘Is there war?br Nikolic said that If Serbs are killed, we’ll send the army to Kosovo,br Belkiza Sahatqiu said that They are here to defend us from the Serbs when they want to storm back,br Even as the European Union has made limited progress in brokering a political settlement between Kosovobr and Serbia, the presence of NATO forces has maintained an uneasy peace, with animosity between the minority Serbs and majority Albanian inhabitants of Kosovo still palpable.br " she said, "but all they ever do is take care of their own interests.