Russia 'pleased' it foiled Kosovo independence

St Petersburg (Russia), June 10: Russia, which blocked Kosovo'sbid for independence from Serbia, assured Serbia today of its continuedsupport, saying it was pleased other G8 nations were taking itsarguments seriously.

In a public setback for Western leaders who back Kosovo's bid forindependence and who are pushing for action this month, RussianPresident Vladimir Putin refused yesterday to back down from hisinsistence there can be no resolution of the province's status withoutthe agreement of Serbia.

Putin said after a G8 summit of the world's major industrialisednations yesterday that undermining Serbia's sovereignty ''does notcorrespond to moral or legal norms''.

US President George W Bush said today the United Nations SecurityCouncil must act now on a plan to grant Kosovo supervised independence.

Washington supports a proposal by UN mediator Martti Ahtisaariwhich offers Kosovo independence under international supervision, butRussia has threatened to veto any vote.

''Our position (on Kosovo) was formulated long ago and it has notchanged since then,'' Putin told Serbian Prime Minister VojislavKostunica at their meeting on the fringes of the 11th St PetersburgInternational Economic Forum.

''I will inform you with pleasure about the results of discussingthis problem within the G8. And I must say that our views on thisproblem run counter to those of my G8 colleagues.'' ''But at the sametime, I got an impression that finally our arguments are being treatedseriously by our G8 colleagues.'' Serb forces killed 10,000 KosovoAlbanians and drove out nearly a million people in a 1998-99anti-insurgency war which was halted by three months of NATO bombing ofSerb targets. The Albanians vow they will never return to Serbsovereignty.

Kosovo Albanian leaders, under growing public pressure to declareindependence from Serbia, warned they would take their ''own path'' ifthe UN Security Council did not vote soon.

''I want to repeat one more time that Serbia once and for allrejected the Ahtisaari plan which contradicts the UN charter andconsists in taking away 15 per cent of Serbia's territory,'' Kostunicatold Putin.

Kosovo is the cradle of Serbia's Orthodox faith but is now home toa 90-per cent Albanian majority. Serbia offers wide autonomy for theprovince instead of independence.

Kostunica, who is widely believed to be travelling to Russia'ssecond largest city to personally thank Putin for blocking Kosovo'sindependence, invited big Russian business to the Balkan nationpromising ''opportunies much bigger'' than now.

Reuters

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