(Sofia) “The murder of Oliver Ivanovic, a promising political leader of Kosovo’s Serbians, is a very negative sign that reminds us of the trials of the Western Balkans and especially for Kosovo, where the situation is still tense as a consequence of unsolved problems between Belgrade and Pristina”. This is the comment given to SIR by Nikolay Krastev, a political analyst and an expert in Balkan issues. In the city of Kosovska Mitrovica, in Kosovo, this morning, Oliver Ivanovic was shot to death with five bullets near the premises of his civic party “Sloboda, demokratija, pravda – Sdp” (Freedom, Democracy and Justice). The news that upset the Balkans stopped all negotiations in Brussels between the Serbian government’s delegation, led by the President, Alexander Vucic, and Pristina’s delegation. The Serbian and Kosovar authorities both censored the murder and made appeals to quickly find the offenders, but the Serbian side sees the killing as an “attack on Serbians in Kosovo”. A strong response also came from the EU that hopes the authorities will soon solve the matter and wish “the population may keep calm”. “There are several versions of the event: that it was committed by enemies of inclusion or by Serbian extremists, who do not accept the moderate policies of Ivanovic, a man of peace of dialogue”, Krastev states. “One thing for sure, this event will spark off the dangerous rhetoric that sadly has never disappeared from the region”.