Russia will regard a unilateral claim of Kosovo independence without approval from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as an illegal move, a senior diplomat said on Monday.
"If the ethnic Albanians claimed Kosovo independence without approval from the UNSC, Russia will regard it as a move against UNSC resolution 1244," Russian top negotiator on Kosovo issue Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said on Monday in an interview with the Russia Today television channel.
He asked the concerned parties and international mediators to settle the issue under a framework of law.
Mediated by the so-called troika, made up of the European Union, Russia and the United States, leaders of Kosovo and Serbia have failed to forge a compromise in several rounds of direct negotiations on the status of Kosovo, a Serb province, which has been administered by the United Nations since 1999.
The authorities of Kosovo, which is mostly inhabited by ethnic Albanians, insists on independence, while Serbia will only offer broader autonomy.
As the Dec. 10 deadline set by the troika passed, the Serbian province is most likely to declare independence next month with or without an agreement.
The United States backs independence for ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, while Russia supports Serbia's demand for further negotiations after the deadline in order to reach a compromise.
The United States and the European Union have said that the international efforts have ended and a move must be made toward the next step.
Source: Xinhua
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