Russia Hints at Security Council Veto of
Kosovo Resolution
Voice of America News - 09 July 2007
By Peter Fedynsky
MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says any resolution on
independence for Kosovo will fail in the U.N. Security Council, unless it gains
the backing of Serbia, a close Kremlin ally. As VOA Moscow Correspondent Peter
Fedynsky reports, Russia has a specific interest in opposing an independent
Kosovo.
Speaking after a ministerial meeting in Bishkek, the capital of Kirghizstan, the
Russian Foreign Minister told reporters that his country's position on Kosovo is
well known, and is backed by international law.
Any decision on Kosovo, says Lavrov, is possible only on the basis of agreement
between the two sides directly involved in the matter.
Complex historical forces have pitted ethnic Albanians, who became Kosovo's
majority in the 20th century, against Serbians, who trace important elements of
their past to the province, where they were once the majority.
The United States and its European allies have drafted a resolution to give the
two sides four months to reach agreement on Kosovo's status. If they fail to
reach agreement, those allies would support Kosovo independence under
international supervision.
Foreign Minister Lavrov says no U.N. resolution on the province can pass without
the agreement of Serbia, a traditional Russian ally. While he did not openly say
Russia would exercise its Security Council veto, he made clear that his country
would do exactly that.
Moscow is dealing with a number of so-called frozen conflicts, violent
intractable disputes involving ethnic minorities in and around Russia.
Vyacheslav Nikonov, the president of the Politika Foundation, a Moscow research
organization, says the Kremlin does not want Kosovo to be used by secessionists
in a number of areas to violate the interests or territorial integrity of
Russia.
Among these areas, says Nikonov, are Moldova's Transdnistria region, as well as
Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus. The analyst adds
that for residents of all those unrecognized states, Kosovo will obviously
become a precedent.
In a related development, the prime minister of Abkhazia, Alexander Ankvab, was
slightly injured in an attack on his vehicle as he traveled to the regional
capital, Sukhumi. Abkhazia is seeking independence from Georgia, which resents
the presence of Russian troops in the area. Moscow says its forces are there
strictly as peacekeepers.
Last week, one of Foreign Minister Lavrov's deputies, Andrei Denisov, told the
Interfax News agency that the international community needs to formulate a
legally-binding document on which principle to apply in Kosovo-type conflicts,
respect for a country's territorial integrity or the right of a people to
self-determination.
U.S. President George Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed
Kosovo at their meeting last week in Kennebunkport, Maine. They did not announce
any breakthrough.
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