By Fatos Bytyci
MERDARE,&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;(Reuters) -Kosovo&nbsp;closed its biggest&nbsp;border&nbsp;crossing&nbsp;with&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;on Wednesday&nbsp;after&nbsp;protesters blocked it on the&nbsp;Serbian side to support their ethnic kin in&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;in refusing to recognise the country's independence.
Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have been running high since last month when representatives of ethnic Serbs in the north of&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;left state institutions including the police and judiciary over the&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;government's decision to replace&nbsp;Serbian issued car licence plates.
Kosovan Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said on Tuesday&nbsp;Serbia, under the influence of Russia, was aiming to destabilise&nbsp;Kosovo.&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;denies it is trying to destabilise its neighbour and says it just wants to protect its minority there.
The Kremlin on Wednesday also denied the Kosovan accusations but said it supported Belgrade. "Serbia&nbsp;is a sovereign country and it is absolutely wrong to look for Russia's destructive influence here," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
For over 20 years,&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;has been a source of tension between the West which backed its independence and Russia which supports&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;in its efforts to block the country's membership in international organisations including United Nations.
Since Dec. 10, Serbs in northern&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;have exchanged fire with police and erected more than 10&nbsp;roadblocks in and around Mitrovica. Their action followed the arrest of a former Serb policeman accused of assaulting serving police officers.
Serbia&nbsp;on Monday put its troops on highest alert. Late on Tuesday,&nbsp;Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who said&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;was continuing to fight peace and seek a compromise, inspected the troops close to the&nbsp;border.
CROSSING&nbsp;BLOCKED
Serbs in&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;used a truck and tractors on Tuesday to create the latest&nbsp;roadblock, close to the Merdare&nbsp;crossing&nbsp;on&nbsp;Kosovo's eastern&nbsp;border, Belgrade-based media reported.
The government in Pristina has asked NATO's peacekeeping force for the country, KFOR, to clear the barricades. But KFOR has no authority to act on&nbsp;Serbian soil.
Kosovo's Foreign Ministry announced on its Facebook page the Merdare&nbsp;crossing&nbsp;had been closed since midnight, saying: "If you have already entered&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;then you have to use other&nbsp;border&nbsp;crossings ... or go through North Macedonia."
The Merdare entry point is&nbsp;Kosovo's most important for road freight, as well as complicating the journeys of Kosovars working elsewhere in Europe from returning home for holidays.
With two smaller&nbsp;crossings on the&nbsp;Serbian&nbsp;border&nbsp;in the north closed since Dec. 10, only three entry points between the two countries remain&nbsp;open.
Pristina&nbsp;main&nbsp;airport was also closed on Tuesday morning over a bomb threat,&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;police said in a statement. Police did not say if it was related to the recent tensions.
Serbian Defence Minister, Milos Vucevic, said Vucic was in talks with the so called Quint group of the United States, Italy, France, Germany and Britain about the current tensions can be resolved.
Around 50,000 Serbs living in ethnically divided northern&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;refuse to recognise the government in Pristina or the status of&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;as a country separate from&nbsp;Serbia. They have the support of many Serbs in&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;and its government.
Albanian-majority&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;declared independence from&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;in 2008 with the backing of the West, following a 1998-99 war in which NATO intervened to protect ethnic Albanian citizens.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Bradley Perrett and Alison Williams)

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Kosovo closes main border crossing after roadblock in Serbia