RUSSIA: Russian President Putin says Kosovo independence is threat to Europe peace

Kosovo independence poses a threat to European peace if it does not take into account fundamental principles of international law, says Russian President Vladimir Putin. Peace in Europe can only be built by respecting Serbia's territorial integrity, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday (July 27), responding to proposals to grant Kosovo independence. "Today the people of Serbia are defending their sovereignty and territorial integrity," Putin said at a Kremlin ceremony. "Peace in Europe cannot be built without taking into account the fundamental principles of international law," he added. Russia backs Serbia's opposition to the Western pressure to grant independence to its breakaway province of Kosovo. Moscow says that creating such a precedent could provoke new conflict. Moscow has regions of its own with strong separatist sentiment and is locked in conflict with Tbilisi over Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Last week, Russia's threat of veto forced the United States and the European Union to shelve a draft U.N. resolution which Moscow says implied, without referring directly to, the granting of independence to Kosovo. The issue has been referred to the Contact group comprising Britain, France, Italy, Germany, the United States and Russia where no country has veto rights. But Russia insists it is up to the U.N. Security Council to make the final decision. Speaking to a reception of foreign ambassadors to Russia, President Putin also said his country is prepared to cooperate further with the Republic of Korea at the six-party talks and "implement the agreement about the ways of securing non-nuclear status of the Korean peninsula." Envoys from Serbia, Afghanistan and the West African nation of Burkina Faso were among those present at the reception.

ITN Source | July 27, 2007

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