Dimitry Medvedev,Russia’s first deputy prime minister and the expected winner of the country’s forthcoming presidential elections, visited Belgrade on Monday to show his support for Serbia after Kosovo’s western-backed declaration of independence last week.

Mr Medvedev, accompanied by other senior Russian officials, met Serbia’s pro-western president, Boris Tadic, and nationalist-leaning prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, amid mounting recriminations from the US and European Union about Belgrade’s failure to protect western embassies from rioters after Thursday’s state-sponsored “Kosovo is Serbia” rally.