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http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=327919Russia threatens to use force over Kosovo
Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, February 22, 2008
UNITED NATIONS -- The international split over Kosovo grew more ominous Friday as Russia raised the spectre of using force to back its Serb ally's bid to retain the territory.
Russia's envoy to NATO warned both the Western military alliance, which has a 16,000-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and the European Union against formally backing the ethnic-Albanian leadership's declaration of independence from Serbia.
"If the European Union works out a common position, or if NATO breaches its mandate in Kosovo, these organizations will be in conflict with the United Nations," said Dmitry Rogozin, alluding to Russia's position that a UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo does not authorize a unilateral move to independence.
"We too would then have to proceed from the view that in order to be respected, we must use brute force -- in other words armed force."