The West completely ignored the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, even though there was no threat to the Albanian population of the province
From the West’s perspective, Slavs do not have the right to self-determination, unlike Albanians, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today.
Comparing the situations in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija and Crimea, Lavrov stated that the West opposed the referendum in Crimea, while it supported the unilateral declaration of independence of the Serbian province due to, as he claimed, racism.
“No, you can’t, you’re Slavs, and here we have Albanians. These are the racist things… We owe no one anything anymore, we will act as we wish,” said Lavrov in an interview with Kommersant.
He stated that no referendum was held in Kosovo and Metohija, but that the UN representative, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, simply declared “Kosovo is independent” on orders from the United States.
“No referendum was held in Kosovo. The UN representative, former Finnish President Mr. Ahtisaari, who disgraced himself in the process, simply came out and said ‘Kosovo is now independent.’ Without a referendum, without anything. The Americans told him to do it – and he did,” Lavrov remarked.
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He explained that the West at that moment completely ignored the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, even though there was no threat to the Albanian population of the province.
“They completely ignored the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia! At the moment of the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, there were no combat operations in the area around that part of Serbia, there was no threat whatsoever to the population of Kosovo that was supposedly in need of saving. There was a resolution adopted even before Kosovo declared independence. The UN Security Council decided that Serbian police officers should be stationed there, that Serbian border guards should be at Kosovo’s external border – but they simply spat on that! And they proceeded down the path of secession,” said Lavrov.
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Source: Politika, Foto: ATA Images