The European Union (EU) and US have been “too soft” on Serbia and should set a deadline for it to adopt sanctions on Russia, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti told the Financial Times in an interview.

He added that the alignment of Serbia’s foreign policy to that of the EU is of vital importance to ensure a sense of security in Kosovo.

“Once Serbia puts sanctions on the Russian Federation, then that would be a moment when they would show that they want to get integrated into EU, and Serbia without Russia cannot threaten the security of the continent. So then, I could trust that they basically want peace. And US and EU would not try to appease them anymore,” said Kurti.

He justified the Kosovo police raid on several branches of the Serbian Postal Savings Bank in the north of Kosovo last week, in which Serbian dinars, which have been “outlawed” in Kosovo, were seized.

Kurti said the restrictions stemmed from Kosovo’s Constitution, which stipulates only one means of payment. He said two-thirds of Serbs received benefits from Kosovo in euros.

The Kosovo prime minister declined to say when Pristina would pull its special police back from the northern municipalities but insisted that “complaints from Serbs about their presence were receding.”

Kurti conceded there are “sometimes differences” with his European and US allies “when it comes to strategies, operations and tactics on the ground on one hand, and when it comes to relations with Serbia,” but not on values or principles.

He said the West’s “soft” approach was “a consequence of having high hopes that sooner rather than later, Serbia will jump into the western democratic camp. In my view, we have waited for too long to be still hopeful,” Kurti told the FT.