From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Wed Sep 03 2008 - 00:23:04 EDT
consortiumnews.com
Double Standards on Russia-Kosovo
By J. Victor Marshall
August 27, 2008
Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, after Russia recognized the independence of
breakaway Georgian provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, President George
W. Bush denounced the move as “irresponsible” -- and most of the U.S.
news media followed with similar outrage.
In much of that U.S. coverage, however, there was little or no reference to
the recent parallel case -- when Bush hailed Kosovo’s declaration of
independence from Serbia, a long-time Russian ally. In this guest essay, J.
Victor Marshall of the Independent Institute examines this double standard:
In Russia even more than in America, “Kosovo” rhymes with “I told you
so.”
Many Americans don’t realize that the former Serbian province of Kosovo,
which broke away in 1999 after US-led NATO forces bombed Serbia for 78
days, helped set the stage for the recent conflict between Russia and
neighboring Georgia.
But Russian leaders, who like most leaders care intensely about what
happens at their borders (Georgia) and to their longtime allies (Serbia),
warned earlier this year that support for Kosovo’s independence would set
a precedent that could trigger separatist conflicts in places like Georgia.
It was a warning that Washington and several of its European allies
foolishly, even recklessly, failed to heed.
In negotiations over the final status of Kosovo, which had been under
United Nations jurisdiction since 1999, Serbia promised the province
autonomy but not independence.
While many observers questioned Kosovo’s readiness for independence,
given corruption in its civil administration and the murderous campaign of
ethnic cleansing waged by Albanian nationalists against Serbs in their
midst, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence on Feb. 17, 2008.
Although Kosovo’s move arguably violated UN Security Council Resolution
1244, which recognized Serbia’s ultimate sovereignty, many NATO countries
including the United States sided with Kosovo.
“The Kosovars are now independent,” declared President Bush.
Humiliated by NATO’s military intervention in 1999, Russia now chafed at
the political intervention of NATO countries in favor of Kosovo’s
secession, which Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned as “immoral
and illegal.”
Russian leaders warned that unilateral recognition of Kosovo’s
independence would open a “Pandora’s box” by appearing to support
similar claims by other separatist movements in some 200 regions of the
world.
The Russian Foreign Ministry declared, “Those who are considering
supporting separatism should understand what dangerous consequences their
actions threaten to have for world order, international stability and the
authority of the U.N. Security Council's decisions that took decades to
build.”
Outside of NATO, many countries sided with Russia’s statement of
principles. Surprisingly, one of the most outspoken was Russia’s hostile
southern neighbor, Georgia. And the reason wasn’t hard for experts to
fathom.
As Richard Weitz at the Hudson Institute noted at the time, Russia could
seize upon Kosovo as a precedent for fomenting separatist movements in the
former Soviet republics, including South Ossetia’s drive for independence
from Georgia in the Caucasus.
Jonathan Eyal, director of international security studies at the Royal
United Services Institute, warned similarly, “if the Kosovo precedent is
used, the Russians can also recognise ethnic Russian enclaves in places
such as Georgia or Moldova. What's good for Kosovo is good for other places
as well.”
Their unheeded warnings have just come to pass, at the expense of thousands
of dead and wounded.
Just as NATO justified its intervention in 1999 as a humanitarian defense
of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians against Serbian atrocities, so Russia said
it came to the defense of South Ossetia, which suffered terrible atrocities
at Georgian hands in the early 1990s, after Georgian troops shelled its
capital earlier this month.
In addition to Kosovo, Russia can justify its intervention on behalf of
South Ossetia by pointing to any number of other precedents set by the
United States: the Bush administration’s doctrine of preemption, its
invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, its silence in the face of Israel’s
invasion of Lebanon, and many more.
What difference do all these precedents and broken principles make?
By selectively turning principles into propagandist slogans for scoring
points, the United States no longer occupies the political high ground.
Washington’s lectures sound like hectoring, not sincere admonitions that
could sway international public opinion and restrain Russian actions.
In short, by squandering its moral authority, the United States has
unilaterally disarmed itself of “soft power” that was once one of our
greatest weapons. And Kosovo was one of the fields upon which the United
States laid down its moral arms.
J. Victor Marshall is a research fellow at The Independent Institute.
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