While the United States, France and Britain have recognized Kosovo a day after Kosovo declared independence, many European states are reluctant to formally acknowledge the ethnically Albanian region.
Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Greece are among the states that have strong reservations about formally recognizing Kosovo.
A daily Russian newspaper, Argumenty i Fakty, claims many of these states have to tackle their own separatist conflicts. “The Kosovo precedent will inspire them,” the paper writes. “Time will show if Kosovo is the beginning of the end of Europe.”
A more liberal Rossijskaya Gazeta is equally fatalistic. “Kosovo marks the emergence of new principles of international law” where the United Nations is a legal “non-entity” and the “rule of force once again features as a key principle of world order.”
It is no surprise the Russian press is so strongly supporting the official position of the Russian government and its “last ally in the Balkans” according to Artyom Ulunyan, a Balkans specialist.
Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Serbia would “never recognize an independent Kosovo” and have called the move “illegal”. Outside Serbia, Russia has been a vehement opponent of Kosovo’s announcement, calling an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council and campaigning to annul the Kosovar independence.
Desperate Dispatch 