West paying the cost of Kosovo precedent

Recognition of Kosovo's independence has "absolutely" violated Serbia's territorial integrity and that is precisely the key problem in Georgia, he said.

"Russia has never digested Kosovo's independence, which was recognized by many Western states, and is now striking back, using the same arguments the West used in recognizing Kosovo's independence", he said.

The right to self-determination in international law was used historically only in the situations regarding colonies, where there were no territorial links between a central territory and a separatist region, the professor said.        

"Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are, however, integral parts of the countries from which they want to secede. Citing the principle of self-determination in justifying independence of these three regions opens a Pandora's Box for many other separatist regions in the world and that is something few countries really want", Corten said.

The West is therefore paying today in Georgia the price of the legal precedent it created by recognizing Kosovo's independence, he said.

"The problem of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has existed for over 15 years and has never caused such great tensions. It is the West which created a precedent by recognizing Kosovo's independence",Cortin argued, adding that "all these developments have exacerbated the tensions in international relations".

US Analyst Ted Galen Carpenter has assessed that the US-EU position on Kosovo is untenable and that Washington, considering the situation with the South Ossetia and Abkhazia, should propose to Moscow an enhanced autonomy for these territories.

"The US-EU position on Kosovo is untenable from the standpoint of both wise diplomacy and basic logic," Carpenter said.

"The United States would thus rescind its recognition of Kosovo's independence and urge the Kosovo Albanians to accept Belgrade's proposal for a negotiated status of 'enhanced autonomy," and Russia would be expected to adopt a similar policy with regard to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Carpenter said.

The US Administration is not aware of the harm it has brought to the country's relations with Russia when it recognised Kosovo independence, executive producer of White House Chronicle Llewellyn Kink has said.

"The administration is not aware of the harm it has done to  the relations with Moscow with its speedy recognition of Kosovo independence, while, on the other side, it is exhibiting almost blind loyalty to the Georgian authority, a fact has led to certain hasty decisions", King said.

 Georgia, obviously, believed that the United States would protect it, which, according to King, was an illusion since Washington had never had the intention of entering into war with Russia over that former Russian republic.

When it comes to Serbia, the US is, mainly, viewing things in the context of Russia, and now, after the Georgian crisis, things seem to be even worse, the White House Chronicle producer assessed.

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