Byzantine Blog

Moscow Will Not Step Aside

MOSCOW, Russian Federation, March 21, 2007 (Source: Tanjug, AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday warned that Moscow would oppose the UN plan for Kosovo-Metohija province if it ignored Serbian interests.

“If there are attempts to enforce on the Serbs something which is unacceptable to them, this will be unacceptable for us as well,” Lavrov said and added that the Kosovo issue was of principled importance and that Moscow would not stand aside. “We are not going to stand aside. That is a matter of principle,” Lavrov told lawmakers in the lower house of Russian parliament, suggesting Russia would not abstain if an unsatisfactory proposal is put to a council vote. “It strikes too many chords — political, historic and spiritual.”

“When we talk about the U.N. Security Council vote, we must not view it as something already predetermined,” Lavrov said, adding that “despite the constant Western claims that the solution of the Kosovo problem is a unique case, this will set a precedent.”

Amputation of the Sovereign State’s Region Bound to Set a Very Bad Precedent

“Any outcome in the Kosovo resolution will create a precedent,” Lavrov said and added that in case of independence this would be the first time that it would not be a federal unit, like in the former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and former Soviet Union, to be detached, but a region, and this would also happen on the unilateral basis, without the agreement of all sides,” Russian media reported.

Asked by Russian deputies whether Moscow would recognize the independence of Georgian republics of South Ossetia or Abkhasia, Lavrov said that the fact that Russia believed that the solution to the issue of Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province would create a precedent did not mean that it would draw hasty conclusions regarding unrecognized former Soviet territories.

“We are not waiting eagerly for Kosovo province to be separated from Serbia so that we can do the same ourselves regarding these regions,” Lavrov said and voiced his belief that this position was wrong.

Ariel Cohen: U.S. Should Stop Undermining Democracy for the Sake of Criminal Elements in Kosovo Province

That Russian position on the issue of Serbian Kosovo province is the only valid one in terms of international law, democratic values and the world order has been confirmed by a number of Western-based analysts and experts, many of whom are often critical of President Putin’s policies. Most recently, Ariel Cohen, a Senior Research Fellow of the Davis Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation, has also warned that “implications of Kosovo’s independence can be dangerous if not catastrophic across the world,” advising that “U.S. should be on the side of democracy and not radical and quasi criminal elements that have predetermined political objectives.”

Commenting on the recent propaganda attack by the Western mainstream media in an effort to force Russia to step aside while Serbia is being dismembered, Dr. Cohen said:

“It is interesting that Holbrooke blames Russia,” for any violence Kosovo Albanians are threatening to initiate if their independence drive is thwarted but “while I do not support President Putin and frequently in my texts I have been critical of Russia, I must say that when Russia stands on the side of the international law and warns that support for separatism in Kosovo would have ramifications not only in Europe but across the world, I think we need to pay attention.”

“We have to be very careful as to the degree and locations of our support for independence movements that can destroy not only sovereign states but also democracy.”

Russian Office in Pristina: Kosovo Albanians Thrilled With Ahtisaari’s Package

Claims that Kosovo Albanians have accepted Martti Ahtisaari’s proposal on Serbian Kosovo-Metohija status with difficulties and by making “painful compromises” are hypocritical, head of the Russian Office in Pristina Andrei Dronov told the Rosbalt news agency on Wednesday.

“As someone who speaks with them both officially and privately I can say that they were quite satisfied with the first version of Ahtisaari’s package,” Dronov said.

Kosovo-Metohija Serbs Live in Fear and Constant Danger

Speaking about the situation in Kosovo-Metohija province, Russian diplomat said that Serbs that were ethnically cleansed from the province were still not returning, because they do not have sufficient guarantees for their security.

“I have to say that they have all the reasons to feel insecure. Regardless of the official claims, the wave of ethnically motivated attacks has not subsided and Serbs really still do not have freedom of movement,” Dronov said and added that, for example, buses with Serbs going to cemeteries to visit the graves of their families were being attacked and explosive devices were planted on the railway tracks.

The head of the Russian Office in Pristina said that the other reason for the distrust of Serbs was the absence of results in the investigations into the March 2004 pogrom, since “they see that people who torched their houses and destroyed their churches remain unpunished.”

“They fear that the same can happen again, especially if the province is granted independence,” Dronov said and added that the latest report of UNMIK head Joachim Ruecker to the UN Security Council was supposed to “reflect the real situation in the province and realistic course of fulfillment of standards.”

“If at the UN Security Council only the view of one side in the conflict gets presented, the principles of objectivity are undermined and this is what Russia stood up against,” he said.

Revision of Borders Only Through Mutual Consent and Agreement of Both Sides

Dronov said that the other Contact Group members raise expectations of Kosovo Albanians through “unfounded support to the idea of independence,” which makes it nearly impossible for Albanians to accept any other position.

Stressing that the mood of Serbs in their southern province “is entirely pessimistic because, understandably, they do not want to lose their land, a territory which accounts for 15 percent of Serbian state, which is not merely a region, but the cradle of Serbian culture,” the Russian diplomat said that they were pressured from different sides and that, in view of the Western position, Russia was their only hope.

“Still, I believe that their hopes have slightly raised,” he said, adding that in the case of Serbian Kosovo province Russia does not defend the Serbian position, but the universal principles for the conflict settlement, as well as the principles of the world order, based on the UN Charter.

“The revision of border issues can be solved only through mutual consent and agreement. There is no other way, because if we impose a solution here, this means that it can be imposed anywhere,” said Dronov, stressing that this did not refer only to South Ossetia and Abkhasia, but also to a number of “painful spots in Europe.”