Medvedev to pursue Moscow’s policy on Kosovo
The newly-elected Russian president Dmitry Medvedev plans to maintain pressure on Western countries on the Kosovo issue, as Moscow’s diplomats announced an offensive during the country’s chairmanship in the UN Security Council in March.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, March 03, 2008
Medvedev, who swept the competition in a single round of presidential elections on Sunday, immediately signaled that Russia plans to stay on course of the international law considering the fate of the Serbian province, in a move widely seen as a pursuit of a policy defined by his predecessor Vladimir Putin.
"We should pursue independent foreign policies, the ones we had in the past eight years, with the main goal of protecting our national interests on all fronts by all possible means, but of course sticking to legal rules," Medvedev, 42, told supporters on Moscow's Red Square.
Medvedev made it quite clear that Moscow does not plan to change its strong position on several key issues in its foreign policy, including the support for Serbian sovereignty in the territorial dispute with the West and opposition to US plans to deploy the missile shield in Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, Russia has taken over the presidency over the UN Security Council, pledging to keep the status of Kosovo high on 15-member body's agenda, side by side with Afghanistan, Middle East and the fight against terrorism.
The Kosovo-related debate in Security Council might prove to be of special interest, as Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called the 2,000-strong EU mission which began deploying in the province, "illegal" and at odds with Resolution 1244.
"The EU law and order mission to Kosovo is illegal since United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 is still in force," Churkin told reporters following consultations with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
The UN chief has, once again, failed to address the controversy which erupted following Pristina's decision to unilaterally declare independence from Serbia, maintaining the stance that UNMIK must keep performing its duties as long as Resolution 1244 remains in power.
"At this point the UN mission has not entered the transition period. We are still on the ground, as we have been since 1999. UNMIK will perform the duties entrusted to it under Resolution 1244, until UN Security Council decide otherwise," Ban's spokesman Brendan Varma said.
In Belgrade, Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksander Alekseev said on Sunday that his country will do "everything possible to make the totally wrong decision" on the unilateral declaration of the independence of Kosovo and its recognition, annulled.
"We should use all our capabilities to prevent the legal violence that is taking place in Kosovo, and the UN Security Council has primarily a huge responsibililty for this, Alekseev said.
