Russia says EU mission to Kosovo illegal

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday a European Union plan to send a mission to Kosovo breached international law and was an example of the West's double standards in recognizing Kosovo's independence from Serbia.

The EU has agreed to send a police, justice and administrative mission to Kosovo to support the authorities there and help keep order in the wake of independence.

"The European Union, unilaterally, and without any sanction from the UN Security Council, is sending a mission to Kosovo to ensure the supremacy of the law," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

"To put it mildly, it is a bitter irony that this mission to ensure the supremacy of the law in Kosovo is being sent in breach of the highest international law," he said at a news briefing with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.

The EU says it considers that U.N. Security Council resolution 1244, adopted in 1999 after NATO air forces drove Serb troops out of Kosovo, provides adequate legal basis for its mission. Lavrov said the resolution did not.

Russia, a close Serbian ally, is seeking to flex its growing clout on the world stage but proved powerless to prevent Kosovo from announcing its split from Belgrade, despite blocking independence in the United Nations.

"PANDORA'S BOX"

Russian diplomats say Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence last Sunday will stir up strife in the Balkans.