Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the ministry is ready to help carry out the tasks that the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots are now facing

Friday, January 22, 2021

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Russia's permanent representative to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin, has criticized Joachim Rucker, Special Representative of the U.N Secretary-General in Kosovo, for taking a biased position on the territory's status. Commenting on Rucker's report on Kosovo status at the U.N. Security Council's behind-the-doors consultations Monday Churkin said: "The international body has no right to be so biased and 'look with one eye'." Rucker said he had informed the U.N. Security Council on the developments in Kosovo, where people had accepted the Ahtisaari plan and were ready to take the next step. Marti Ahtisaari, a special UN envoy for talks on Kosovo, said March 10 he would return his resolution proposals to the UN Security Council following fruitless top-level talks in Vienna between Pristina and Belgrade. Although U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff described Rucker's proposals as balanced, Russia believes it is too early to determine the Kosovo status without taking into account the opinion of the Serbian government and all ethnic groups. The Russian official said political resources for negotiations had not been exhausted yet. Serbia's predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo province, which has a population of two million, has been a UN protectorate since NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia ended a war between Serb forces and Albanian separatists in 1999. As a veto-wielding member in the 15-nation UN Security Council and a traditional ally of Serbia, Russia has insisted that a decision on Kosovo should satisfy both Kosovar and Serbian authorities, and must be reached through negotiations. Unlike Russia, NATO has made it clear that it favors independence for Kosovo, but the final decision will be up to the UN Security Council, which will hear Ahtisaari's proposals this week.

Print Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the ministry is ready to help carry out the tasks that the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots are now facing

Bookmark Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the ministry is ready to help carry out the tasks that the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots are now facing