Russian Official Says Russia Will Not Recognize Kosovo's Independence

Belgrade Cars Drive Support Russia (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Pyotr Olegovich Tolstoy has said that Russia "has not and will not recognize the independence of Kosovo, which was and should remain a part of Serbia."

"Violent separation of a state is unacceptable from any point of view, if it was not initiated by the people itself and [if] the intention was not confirmed in a peaceful referendum, like it happened in the case of Crimea's reunification with Russia," Olegovich Tolstoy told the June 15 issue of daily Politika.

He further said that "today the Serbs in Kosovo have been violently ripped away from their fatherland, the events of 1999 cause great sorrow, not only among the Serbian people but, believe me, among Russians as well." "If we go back to the words of Vladimir Putin, who compared the recognition of DNR and LNR (Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics) to a judicial precedent relative to Kosovo, that was said to point to the double standards and hypocrisy of the West," he said.

Asked about the war in Ukraine, the official said that "today it is already clear that it is a battle of the collective West against Russia, which is being fought in the territory of Ukraine and at the cost of Ukrainians' lives."