Russia sounds Kosovo warning

Russia said yesterday international recognition of Kosovo would influence its policy towards the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but it did not say if it would recognise them.

Kosovo is expected to unilaterally declare independence from Serbia tomorrow and then be recognised by the US and most members of the European Union. Russia backs its ally Serbia in opposing the move.

Russian officials have linked Kosovo's status to Georgia's separatist regions, saying any recognition of the Serbian province as an independent state would create a legal precedent that would be followed by others.

"We will, without doubt, have to take into account a declaration and recognition of Kosovo independence in connection with the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement, posted on the ministry's internet site www.mid.ru, made no mention of whether Russia would grant recognition to the two regions.

Earlier, Interfax news agency quoted the foreign ministry as saying Russia would change its policy on the breakaway regions if Kosovo was recognised.

However Interfax news agency, later amended its report, removing the reference to a change in policy.

The statement on the internet site said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had talks yesterday with Abkhazia's separatist leader Sergei Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity, president of South Ossetia's separatist administration.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from ex-Soviet Georgia in fighting in the 1990s. Some observers have said Russia might grant them recognition in response to Western states recognising Kosovo. Russia already provides financial aid to both regions and the majority of residents hold Russian passports. Moscow has peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Russia has stopped short of granting the regions recognition because, analysts say, it fears that could encourage its own separatists.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described recognition for Kosovo as "immoral and illegal" and said he had a plan on how to respond if Western states back Kosovo's independence.

He did not disclose any details of the plan but he said Russia would not "ape" the Western recognition of Kosovo, a signal that Russia's response would not involve Moscow recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Meanwhile President Nicolas Sarkozy made clear he would support independence for Kosovo yesterday, telling a class of schoolchildren that they needed to get used to the idea of a newlook map of Europe.

"You'll need to change that, with Kosovo," President Sarkozy told children in Perigueux, southwestern France, while pointing to a map of Europe pinned to their classroom wall which showed Kosovo as part of Serbia.

Kosovo's minority Serbs reject the province's imminent secession and said yesterday they would remain part of Serbia and set up their own parliament in accordance with Serb laws.

Some ten per cent of the province, north of the Ibar river, is home to 50,000 ethnic Serbs who look to Belgrade for schools, jobs, healthcare and policing.

"We call all Serbs to ignore this provocation and realise we remain part of the Serbian state," Kosovo Serb leader Marko Jaksic said in Mitrovica.

Kosovo's second city has been a flashpoint for unrest since 1999 when Nato bombs expelled Serb forces accused of killing civilians in a counter-insurgency war.