Monsters and Critics

March 20, 2008

Moscow/Brussels – Russia’s firebrand envoy to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said Thursday that US military aid to Kosovo amounted to arming ‘former terrorists.’

Responding to news of US President George W Bush’s approval of military aid to Kosovo Thursday, Russia’s ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin warned that such a move could lead to ‘new terrorist clashes in the Balkans.’

The weapons, Rogozin stressed, ‘won’t be collectors’ items,’ they’ll be ‘used and shot from,’ news agency Interfax quoted him as saying.

Russia’s NATO envoy called for an early meeting of the Russia-NATO council to discuss the US plans to deliver arms.

The United States has said that furnishing defence capabilities to Kosovo would ensure stability in the region, but Rogozin on Thursday rejected the US policy as ‘twisted logic.’

‘To give former terrorists weapons for the war against terrorism appears at least amusing if not worse,’ the Interfax news agency quoted Rogozin as saying from Brussels.

‘It is well known that those in power in Kosovo came in as the organizers and leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which many states recognized as a terrorist organization,’ he said.

The US was among the first nations to recognize Kosovo after it split from Serbia, despite heavy protest from Russia, which warned that the example of the province’s independence would fan the flames of separatist struggles worldwide.

Rogozin suggested Thursday that an early meeting of the Russia- NATO council could take place on March 28, when tentative talks were planned with NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

US President George W Bush and Putin are expected to face off over the countries’ differing perceptions of NATO at a summit for the organizations on April 2 in Bucharest.

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