Encouraging an independent Kosovo would actually suit Russia, explains adam lebor |
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Vladimir Putin doesn't much like advice from Westerners, but anyway, here's mine. Don't oppose independence for Kosovo: embrace it. Why? Because President Bush's weekend call for an independent Kosovo sets an extraordinary precedent - one most useful to Moscow.
Put aside the brutality of Milosevic's murderous campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo in the 1990s and simply consider the course of events there.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanians set up a guerilla militia, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), with the assistance of various Western intelligence services, foremost among them the CIA. The KLA fought a secessionist war, and don't doubt that independence from Serbia has been on the agenda for decades. NATO acted as the KLA's de facto airforce as it bombed Serbia. In their drive to secede, the KLA of course were following a pattern set by the rebel Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia. The |
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| By helping a guerilla army carve out its own territory from a sovereign state, the world has set a dangerous precedent |
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difference is, with our help, the KLA won.
The expelled Albanians returned home and launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing, against Kosovo's Serbs, Roma and other minorities. Kosovo remains part of Serbia but is now a UN-protectorate, ruled by the international community. The borders of an internationally recognised nation-state have been altered by an armed uprising and the West is giving its stamp of approval.
You can argue that the KLA's triumph was just and necessary. But you can also argue that by helping a guerilla army carve out its own territory from a sovereign state, the world has set a dangerous precedent for other unstable regions.
Moscow supports the rebels in Transdniester, an enclave in Moldova seeking independence. It also backs the secessionists in Abkhazia, Georgia, who fought a bitter war in the early 1990s against the government in Tblisi. Like the Kosovars, the Transdniester rebels and the Abkhazians also claim the right of self-determination. Once Kosovo is independent, who are we to say no? 
FIRST POSTED JUNE 12, 2007
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