Kosovo is demonstrating functional non-viability as a state, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
The United Nations Security Council on November 16 noted the “unstable situation in the region,” she said. “Rights of non-Albanian population continue to be violated. More cases of violation against the Serbs are being reported. The lack of real law and order, the permanent political crisis along with a mass exodus of population vividly demonstrate the artificial character and functional non-viability of Kosovo’s statehood.”
“Bearing in mind what is going on there, the extremely low refugee return rates seem not to be surprising,” she noted. “We are worried over the growing plans of the Albanian authorities to usurp Serbian property in Kosovo. Such practices have expanded in the recent time to economic assets owned by Serbian state structures and companies. Such illegal steps cannot promote interethnic reconciliation.”
“Several years ago, the entire Western world, the European Union and the United States were at the wheel of this process seeking to tear Kosovo from Serbia. It was done under the slogan ‘Kosovo is a land of possibilities,’” Zakharova noted. “Now those who were tearing Kosovo from Serbia say Kosovo had a legitimate referendum. There was no referendum in Kosovo.”
“I remember those debates at the United Nations Security Council. They were sparing no effort to pass those decisions, despite all norms of the law, despite the demands of Serbia’s official and legitimate government, which were simply ignored. They thought they would do the rest using propaganda and the information tools to form the image of the ‘land of possibilitie.’ They have failed.”
According to the spokeswoman, dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina “is proceeding with great difficulty.”
“The major topic – creating Serbian municipalities in Kosovo – has been stalled,” she noted. “We think that the Kosovo authorities must not dodge their liabilities. We expect the European Union to be diligent in playing its mediatory role in the dialogue under the United Nations General Assembly resolution of September 9, 2010”.
