Russia will reap its first big reward today for supporting Serbia in trying to stop Kosovo from declaring unilateral independence. Next week the European Union may suffer a serious reverse for doing the opposite, if Serbia elects a hardline nationalist president. The price of Kosovo's freedom is high.

Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas monopoly, is to acquire a majority shareholding in NIS, the Serbian state oil monopoly, and in return incorporate the former Yugoslav republic into its proposed South Stream gas pipeline that will run under the Black Sea via Bulgaria to Greece and Italy.