Putin completely unafraid and making more threats to EU (and its master, the USA)

Russia warns on Kosovo as G8 ministers meet

By Madeline Chambers

POTSDAM, Germany (Reuters) - Russia warned other world powers on Wednesday not to decide the fate of Kosovo on their own, saying only talks between Belgrade and Pristina could solve a row over independence for the Serbian province.

"The fate of Kosovo, the fate of Serbia on the whole should be decided through their direct talks rather than in New York, Potsdam or in any other formats," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the start of a meeting of G8 countries in Potsdam, according to Russian news agencies.

Serbia, backed by Russia, opposes a plan proposed by United Nations mediator Martti Ahtisaari offering the Albanian majority province independence under international supervision.

Western powers have backed a U.N. resolution that would grant Kosovo effective independence, but do not have support from Moscow, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council.

Kosovo has become a major irritant in relations between Russia and the West and Group of Eight (G8) president Germany is keen that the issue will not overshadow a G8 summit it is hosting next week in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm.

"The positions within the G8 (on Kosovo) are not yet close enough to say how we move forward in the Security Council," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters at the start of the G8 foreign ministers meeting in Potsdam, which is preparing the ground for the June 6-8 leaders meeting in Heiligendamm.

"We need to make it clear to our Russian partners that without a decision by the Security Council we simply won't make any progress on the western Balkans and Kosovo."

IRAN, SUDAN

Separately on Wednesday, Ahtisaari told a Finnish newspaper that the United Nations should hurry up and pass the Kosovo resolution next month, saying the province would become independent one way or another.

European Union enlargement chief Olli Rehn told colleagues in Brussels that talks on closer ties with Serbia could resume soon because Belgrade was moving to cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Brussels is keen to smooth the way for a supervised Kosovo independence settlement, which will be largely policed and administered by the EU, by making parallel progress on closer ties with Serbia, diplomats say.

In addition to Kosovo, G8 foreign ministers are expected to discuss the nuclear standoff with Iran and the unresolved conflict in Sudan's Darfur region at the one-day meeting, which was guarded by hundreds of police.

G8 countries are likely to wait until after a Thursday meeting in Madrid between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani before finalizing any statements on Iran.

The foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan will hold talks on the sidelines of the Potsdam meeting to find ways to cooperate on sealing the long and porous border between the two neighbors.

In the evening, Steinmeier, Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon head to nearby Berlin for a meeting of the Middle East "Quartet" on the increasingly tense relations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Original article posted here.