Posted on 02/24/2008 12:37:47 PM PST by NoLibZone
MOSCOW, February 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will never use force to solve the problem of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia, Russia's envoy to NATO said on Sunday.
"This [use of force] will never take place," Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with the Vesti television channel in reply to a request to comment on his statement made at a February 22 Moscow-Brussels video conference and wrongfully interpreted by some media.
Some media claimed, referring to Rogozin's statement on Kosovo, that he admitted of the use of force to restore international law. These reports prompted an angry reaction from Washington.
According to Rogozin, he would advise U.S. representatives to use reliable rather than dubious information sources.
Rogozin said Russia will defend its position on Kosovo in the UN Security Council as its permanent member.
“The Kosovo-Albanians have played us like a Stradivarius. We have subsidized and indirectly supported their violent campaign for an ethnically pure and independent Kosovo.We have never blamed them for being the perpetrators of the violence in the early ‘90s and we continue to portray them as the designated victim today in spite of evidence to the contrary. When they achieve independence with the help of our tax dollars combined with those of bin Laden and al-Qaeda, just consider the message of encouragement this sends to other terrorist-supported independence movements around the world. Funny how we just keep digging the hole deeper!”—Maj-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie
Sanity returns to FR.
What? Doesn’t something need to be there sometime before it can return?
Great now we are playing Russian roulette using nuclear weapons.
The Russians won’t use force right now, anyway, but they may help arm the Serbs. And they can always lean on the Euros through their control of energy.
The question is, will the Kosovar terrorists use force, and will the media report it?
It’s not that hard to find an incident to justify a war, in an area full of hatreds and killers like this one. hard to imagine that the Muslims will wait long before they start driving out more Serbs and Gypsies and burning down more churches.
That’s about all those people know how to do—smuggle drugs and kill people.
All he has to do is turn the valve on the natural gas supply, and raise the price so the same amount of cash rolls in.
BTTT
Nah, they're pretty good at white slavery, kidnap for ransom and smuggling (people and contraband), too.
Seems to me I remember the russians rolling in to Prague with loads of tanks when I was a kid. No one thought they’d do that either.
I trust the damn russians about as far as I can throw one of their tanks.
Kosovo is Clinton as Iran is to Carter.
Kosovo is to Clinton as Iran is to Carter.
If the contiguous Serbian areas of Kosovo can be consolidated and protected, and the remaining Serbs rescued from inside the new Muslim terror state, the Russians can sit back and enjoy the destruction of Europe at the hands of their new little buddies the Jihadi Kosovars.
Why fight the Euroweenies when they have chosen to kill themselves.
The Russians try to be sticklers to the letter, but not the spirit. They say they, the Russians, will not use force. But nary a mention of the Serbs.
I would not be surprised that if the Serbs do intervene, it will both *not* be just to take Kosovo, but to hold it. For this, they will need lots of advanced weapons, which of course will come from Russia.
Looking at things objectively, the Russians and Serbs have a point. Kosovo is a hostile Muslim power in the middle of Europe. They are Muslim, because they frightfully oppress the Christians who live or lived there.
Why the West would support these Muslims, instead of the Serb Christians, has always puzzled the Serbs. For they are under no illusions that a Muslim Kosovo will be anything other than a viper in the bosom of Europe, a training ground and launching pad for Muslim extremists to fan out across Europe, to kill innocent people.
Already, the Muslims have tried to destroy every church in that country.
So we should not be too quick to condemn the Serbs, with Russian backing, from capturing and cleaning out Kosovo of such a threat. In the long run, they might be very right.
If the Russians do encourage them, hopefully the Serbian occupation will be so decisive that NATO will think otherwise before interfering.
And man will never create a heavier than air flying machine, and bumblebees can't fly.
I don’t suppose we could just dump the whole Balkan quagmire in Putin’s lap.
They can’t arm the Serbs. Think about it? Russia has a seat on the UN. It loves that seat and would do nothing to lose it through a rash decision. It has too much to lose.
Russia complies with the UN Arms Register. It has to declare openly and register any export of arms. In order to get those arms to Serbia they would have to fly them in. Flight plans would have to be filed and cargo declared. Heavy equipment such as armor would have to be flown in by heavy lifters such as An-124 and An-22s and lots of them. A bit of a giveaway don’t you think?
NATO simply calls the bluff and gets the first few transports to land for inspection to check the manifest. All those Ladas on board declared on the manifest are actually armored personnel carriers. NATO denies the cargo transports use of airspace and denies overflights of arms. The Russian are completely hamstrung over this issue. They cannot assist Serbia militarily.
I believe the arms embargo on Yugoslavia was lifted in 2001:
http://www.serbia-info.com/news/2001-09/12/25431.html
So, I’m not sure why Russia can’t sell arms to Serbia, and then the Serbs can get them into northern Kosovo if they choose to.
I’m not saying they’ll necessarily do it, but it’s not something we could easily prevent.
Of course the arm embargo was lifted, but Serbia is still under treaty compliance. Vienna Document and Dayton Accord. It would have to rip them up to exceed the limits set. They have a ceiling on combat equipment that is agreed and shared by neighbouring countries. Bit of a giveaway there!
For Russia to arm Serbia. And we are talking about substansive amounts of armor, missiles and combat aircraft if Serbia ever wants to invade Kosovo. Russia isn’t going to clandestinely arm Serbia and risk getting caught. Take a look at a map and see NATO airspace. Russia can’t arm Serbia even if it wanted to.
Russia won’t use force. They’ll just backup the Serbs with a credible nuclear threat.
Oh please! It’s like the nuke Fallujah crowd! Putin isn’t coming to the rescue on his white charger - nukes or no nukes!
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