Financial Times (London, England)
January 17, 2007 Wednesday
Asia Edition 1

Putin reassures Belgrade over Kosovo’s future

By NEIL BUCKLEY

Russia will support a solution on the future of Kosovo, the breakaway
province of Serbia, only if it is backed by Belgrade, senior
officials in Moscow are making clear.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said yesterday the
province’s status could "only be determined through talks and it has
to be acceptable both to Belgrade and to the Kosovopopulation".

Earlier, Vojislav Kostunica, Serbian prime minister, said Vladimir
Putin had assured him that if a Kosovo plan to be presented soon by
the UN envoy "is unacceptable to Belgrade, neither can it be
acceptable to the (UN) Security Council".

The Kremlin confirmed that Mr Kostunica had spoken by telephone to
the Russian president on Monday, at Belgrade’s request, and Mr Putin
had "affirmed Russia’s fundamental position".

Mr Putin said last September that Russia might use its United Nations
Security Council veto if it disagreed with the plan by Martti
Ahtisaari, UN envoy.

Mr Ahtisaari is due to present his proposals shortly after next
Sunday’s general elections in Serbia, whichpit pro-European forces
allied to Boris Tadic, president, against the ultra-nationalist
Radical party.

His plan is expected to propose "supervised" independence for Kosovo,
under EU supervision. Russia’s position at the UN will be crucial. Mr
Kostunica said the Russian president had stressed that the solution
must "stem from the principle of territorial integrity".

Sergei Karaganov, who heads Russia’s council on foreign and defence
policy, said Russia had always believed Nato’s bombing of Yugoslavia
in 1999 to drive Serb forces out of Kosovo breached international
law. It would not "make life easy" for anyone seeking independence
for Kosovo.

But Russia might show its unhappiness with any plan at the Security
Council by abstaining rather than a veto, he said. The most likely
solutions – full independence or independence as some kind of
international protectorate – both had positive sides for Russia.

Mr Putin has stated repeatedly in the past year that an independent
Kosovo would set a precedent for unresolved conflicts in the former
Soviet Union. These include the rebel Georgian provinces of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia; Transdnestr, the breakaway territory of Moldova;
and Nagorno Karabakh, the mainly Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress