FM LAVROV SAYS TOO EARLY TO SPEAK OF GIVING KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE

RIA Novosti
13:17 | 10/ 04/ 2006

MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s foreign minister says it
is early to speak of granting independence to the troubled Serbian
region of Kosovo, the ministry said Monday.

Sergei Lavrov told Slovak newspaper Pravda last week that hasty
decisions on giving Kosovo sovereignty “would be immediately projected
on other conflicts, including in the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent
States].”

Lavrov said that it was tempting to establish the Kosovo case as unique
and say it did not create international legal precedent, but that
this was no more than an attempt to evade international legal norms.

“Double standards and selectiveness in conflicts settlements are
unacceptable,” Lavrov said.

Earlier, some Russian politicians expressed concern that independence
for Kosovo would create a precedent for recognition of breakaway
regions in the former Soviet Union.

Moldova is dealing with a separatist regime in Transdnestr,
while Georgia has two breakaway regions in Abkhazia and South
Ossetia. Nagorny Karabakh, a largely ethnic Armenian enclave inside
Azerbaijan, has long been a source of friction between the two
Caucasus states.

Formally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since
1999, following a NATO military campaign to drive out Yugoslav forces
accused of atrocities against Albanian civilians.