Rusland: Westen vertraagt mogelijk besluit over Kosovo (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Russia is suggesting the EU and US may agree to put off a decision on the final status of Kosovo pending further negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, despite earlier promises to Kosovo Albanians they would have independence by June.

"We should find a text that would allow all the parties [including Serbia and Kosovo] to continue to work on the acceptable terms of a solution," the head of the Europe desk at the Russian foreign ministry, Sergei Ryabkov, told press in Brussels on Tuesday (29 May).

"If this is accepted, we would be more than happy to continue working on the language [of a UN resolution]. There are some signs that this is the case," he added, following UN talks in New York last week and a telephone call between Bush and Putin on Monday.

The EU and US three weeks ago put forward a draft UN resolution that deletes an earlier UN resolution 1244 on Serbia's territorial integrity, paves the way for Kosovo to declare independence, join the UN and develop its own army under EU and NATO supervision.

At the time, senior US diplomat Nicholas Burns said Washington expected the deal to be adopted in late May or early June. Kosovo Albanian prime minister Agim Ceku also predicted that the region would gain independence in a matter of "weeks."

But Russia has threatened to veto the text, while presenting new ideas of its own. A Russian official told EUobserver Moscow would only agree to a UN resolution that calls for further talks under international supervision between Belgrade and Pristina on Kosovo's status.

It would also agree to a new resolution that calls for the full implementation of resolution 1244 on the rights of the ethnic Serb minority, with a new EU police mission and the old NATO force to stay and keep the peace until 1244 has been fulfilled.

"There is no political force in Russia, on the left or right, that would accept Kosovo independence, at least not right now," the head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev, said on Tuesday. "This is not an urgent decision that we need to have at any price by a certain date."

Will G8 see a deal?

Publicly, the US, the European Commission and EU states say they continue to back the draft UN resolution on Kosovo independence, with the G8 summit in Germany on 6 June held up as the latest potential date for a breakthrough international agreement.

The official EU and US line is that fresh talks between Serbia and Kosovo are pointless, since months-long negotiations last year under the supervision of UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari did not bring the two parties any closer and since further delays could see radical Albanian groups turn to violence.

But some western diplomats are beginning to doubt whether any deal will emerge before summer. "I'm in Pristina and the local press is talking about September as a time for the solution," an EU official said. "I don't sense any tension, any potential for instability," he added.

"There's no guarantee there will be a solution by the G8," a UN official also travelling in the region said. "They [the Kosovo Albanian government] are slowly preparing the people for additional delay. They went forward quite fast with the dates, and now they have to go back."

A Kosovo official predicted that the final UN resolution will be so vague on the issue of Kosovo's status it will enable everybody to claim victory. "Afterward, Kosovo will declare independence and the US will recognise it. But Russia will say they never authorised this and Serbia will reject it."

Croatian report rebuffed

Meanwhile, another element of uncertainty was added this week by reports in leading Croatian daily Jutarnji List on Monday that the US and Russia were close to a deal that would involve Russian peacekeeping troops in Kosovo and US side-promises not to expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia.

The report cited Russian officials "close to" president Putin. But EU, UN and Russian officials poured cold water on the information on Tuesday. "I would take it with a big pinch of salt," an EU official said. "It looks like provocation or wishful thinking," a Russian diplomat said.

Kosovo is legally part of Serbia but has been controlled by the UN and NATO since 1999, when NATO intervened to stop a crackdown by Serb nationalist forces against ethnic Albanians. The region today is home to 1.8 million ethnic Albanians and over 100,000 ethnic Serbs.