RUSSIA VOWS TO BLOCK KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE AT UN
RIA Novosti
20:14 | 10/ 01/ 2008
MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) — Russia will block any resolution
on Kosovo’s status at the UN Security Council until both parties have
found a mutually acceptable settlement, Russia’s envoy to the troika
said Thursday.
"We are issuing an advance warning that we will not let any resolution
based on the recognition of Kosovo’s independence make it past the
Security Council. We will only accept a resolution based on compromise
and one that would be approved by Belgrade and Pristina," Alexander
Botsan-Kharchenko said.
He said no one could prevent Russia from exercising its veto, which
is enjoyed by all permanent Security Council members.
Throughout long-lasting talks aimed at finding a solution to the
status of Serbia’s breakaway province, Russia has backed Belgrade in
opposing Kosovo’s sovereignty, warning it would have a knock on effect
for other secessionist areas, such as Transdnestr in Moldova, South
Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia and Nagorny Karabakh in Azerbaijan,
so-called frozen conflicts since the 1990s.
The Albanian-dominated Serbian province has been a UN protectorate
since the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia ended a conflict
between Albanian and Serb forces in 1999.
The UN Security Council failed last year to bridge divisions over
Kosovo’s future. Belgrade is opposed to the region’s independence,
and has offered it broad autonomy within Serbia. Pristina wants full
sovereignty, however.
The Security Council will discuss a report by the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) on January 16.
Russia said on Saturday the proclamation of the province’s unilateral
independence, without a relevant UN decision, would be unlawful.
A report of the Secretary-General on the UNMIK said that "while
the Unity Team continued to attend the Troika-led talks, its
representatives repeatedly stated that any further extension of talks
would be unacceptable."
Most Western states have backed the volatile area’s drive for
independence, and said recently that Kosovo’s status would now be
determined by the European Union and NATO. Russia is insisting that
Belgrade and Pristina continue to try to reach a compromise.