Putin criticizes “Le Monde” over Kosovo double standards
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has criticized the French daily “Le Monde” for referring to South Ossetia and Abkhazia as separatist regions, while not using the same phrase for Kosovo.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, June 02, 2008
"You said separatist? Why didn't you use this word about Kosovo?" the Russian prime minister wondered in an interview for the Paris daily, published following his meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"You cannot answer, and this is because you do not have an answer," Putin continued.
The journalist then remarked that "in Abkhazia, it was the Georgians who had been ethnically cleansed, while in Kosovo, the situation was quite the opposite since it was the Albanians that were exposed to this practice".
But Putin said that the two things were "not at all opposite".
"Thousands of Serbs can't return to Kosovo. Hundreds of thousands," he said.
"Where did you see refugees coming back to Kosovo?," he continued. "Don't tell me stories, I know what is really going on there."
Putin said some 55,000 Georgians had returned to the Galian Region of Abkhazia.
Some 220,000 Serbs have not been able to return to Kosovo since they were expelled from their homes by ethnic Albanians in 1999.
