SENIOR RUSSIAN MP KOSACHEV WARNS OF DANGERS OF KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE
BBC Monitoring International Reports - April 13, 2006 Thursday

Text of report by Russia TV on 13 April

[Presenter] Moscow thinks it is inappropriate artificially to set any deadlines for a change in the status of Kosovo. What is more, any resolution of the Kosovo problem will inevitably become an international legal precedent, which will influence the resolution of other conflicts, including within the CIS.

[Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of State Duma Committee on International Affairs] If Kosovo is recognized as independent without Belgrade's agreement, for the first time in the history of post-war Europe a precedent will have been set of dismembering, dissociating an autonomous area from an integral state without the agreement of that state to do this. This will mean that other unrecognized republics will certainly go down the same road, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagornyy Karabakh, the Dniester Region, North Cyprus, possibly certain other regions of Europe. This is very well understood in the West. They are now attempting to put pressure on Belgrade to achieve in one form or another the agreement of the Belgrade authorities to independence for Kosovo.

Source: RTR Russia TV, Moscow, in Russian 1400 gmt 13 Apr 06

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