http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/25-02-2008/104214-kosovo_russia-0
PRAVDA (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) USA may use Kosovo's precedent to split Russia 25.02.2008 After Kosovo's independence has been declared, the USA will try to separate Russia. According to the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the USA will use the precedent to urge Russia to acknowledge the independence of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Trans-Dniester, and then it will support independence of republics of the Northern Caucasus that are now parts of the Russian Federation. Zhirinovsky believes that China, Turkey and a number of other states are in danger of separation. Zhirinovsky does not exclude that by the end of the century dozens of new states may emerge. Vladimir Zhirinovsky took the floor at a recent press-conference in Moscow and said that the USA made a point of separating Serbia, thus it will achieve several purposes, one of which is to intimidate its geopolitical rivals, such as Russia and China. "It is an imperial style of the USA to show its negligence towards the international law. That is why it bombarded Yugoslavia to create animosity and conflicts. Now it has the result. The long-planned operation has finished successfully - an artificial state has been created for the first time. Currently the USA will keep other countries daunted," Zhirinovsky considered. He thinks the precedent with Kosovo is aimed against Turkey as well, where the Kurdish problem is still unsolved. "If Turkey opposes, this problem will come up again. Kurds were promised to get their own state in 1919; they have been waiting for 89 years, and so now they will have their chance. They really have legal grounds - they have always lived there," said Zhirinovsky. He also believes that the separation may endanger China, with its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. "It is exactly like Kosovo in Serbia, and in that region there are Moslems who are eager to get separated from China," said Zhirinovsky and added that "there are quite a number of such cases. By the end of the century a hundred new states may appear." "The Kosovo problem is a blow to Europe as well; there will be conflicts, arsons, murders and acts of terrorism, while the USA will seem to have nothing to do with this, because the country is situated far away." He also claimed that the USA benefits from the military point of view, for the American military bases will be situated very close to Turkey and Russia. Besides, due to this situation in Kosovo, the USA will solve its other problems, Zhirinovsky said. For example, the USA will try to control the UN and get rid of this organization, whose members often oppose the USA plans. Zhirinovsky thinks that the USA has succeeded in this. The refusal of the UN Secretary General to assess the situation has undermined the authority of the organization. "The USA dreams to get rid of the UN and to create the League of Nations under its own control," Zhirinovsky claimed. At the same time the USA is solving its internal problems thanks to the situation in Kosovo. "On the eve of the election the Moslem community in the USA will be pleased, and so will Latinos," Zhirinovsky notified. Zhirinovsky also argued that the same variant had been worked out for Russia in Chechnya, but it failed. "They had tried to do the same thing with Chechnya - to struggle, to declare independence, to use international forces and thus the whole world would acknowledge its independence. There was a plan, and even maps were issued - the Caucasus Emirate from Makhachkala up to the Black Sea was expected to comprise seven North Caucasus republics with Tbilisi as their centre," said Zhirinovsky. He thinks that Russia has to do what it has already been doing for the last years. "We have to do what we have already been doing, that is to create large non-national territorial formations, such as Perm, Zabaykalsk and Krasnoyarsk regions. In the near decade 50 regions will be created in Russia to provide definite borders of some national subject in the future," said the LDPR leader and added that the national question will never be solved for good. Meanwhile, Zhirinovsky is optimistic about the Russian foreign policy concerning the so-called unacknowledged republics. According to him, Russia is right not to put on the agenda the acknowledgement of Trans-Dniester, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "We will get benefit if Europe does the worst, thus we will not be accused of the Kosovo problem and acknowledging four states. Let Europe suffer the consequences of this acknowledgement. There will be blood, violence and terrorism, and then the world will see the aftermaths of creating a new state on the territory of an existing one," Zhirinovsky said. He also claimed that from the imperial point view Russia may benefit from acknowledging Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Trans-Dniester, but there is a danger that the West will fulfill towards Russia the same operation as with Kosovo. "The West will include Georgia in the NATO and will provoke unrest in the North Caucasus. There they will prepare military groups and urge Dagestan or Kabardino-Balkaria to struggle for independence like Kosovo," Zhirinovsky considers. "We have reached a complete deadlock. We should acknowledge Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but what will we do next? Yakutia and Buryatia may demand independence. It has been done hundred times. The USA need to urge us to acknowledge such republics. If we acknowledge Trans-Dniester, they will acknowledge Dagestan; if we acknowledge Abkhazia, they will acknowledge Chechnya; if we acknowledge South Ossetia, they will acknowledge Kabardino-Balkaria. That's what they are waiting for - if you have acknowledged, we will do the same. Chechnya has the same rights as Abkhazia. That is the problem," Zhirinovsky concluded. He thinks the present problems were caused by those who had put on the agenda the nations' right for self-determination, which enables Kosovo to become an independent state now. The LDPR leader criticized the Soviet regime heavily and agues that it was at that time when the present national conflicts were created, including the Kosovo problem and the fall of the USSR and Yugoslavia. "There is no USSR, no Yugoslavia any more. Belgrade alone will remain of Serbia," said Zhirinovsky. According to Zhirinovsky, Russia needs a unitarian form of government in order to prevent such problems as Serbia has. Otherwise, the country will split. "If our present regime is preserved with the democratic state, we will have to follow the Kosovo course in the near 30-40 years. Then we can tell our grandchildren directly that they will live in another country, speak another language, perhaps, they will have to change faith. I don't want this for my grandchildren," claimed Zhirinovsky when he was accused of defending the imperial ideology. Translated by Julia Bulygina Pravda.ru
