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.

Kosovo is recognized by most of Europe's largest nations and the United States, a move Russia says will open a "Pandora's box" of separatist tension across Europe.

The EU is expected to deploy the 2,000-strong mission by June. It will oversee training and institution-building, with limited rights to intervene to fight organized crime and corruption or hunt war criminals.

A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana's said the mission would benefit Kosovo and there had been constant contact with Russia.

"We are convinced (the mission) will do good in Kosovo because it will contribute to a sound political structure, particularly for the judiciary," the spokeswoman said when asked to comment on Lavrov's statement.

The leader of Russia's Orthodox Church said on Wednesday that Kosovo's independence would sow disorder and could lead to separatist tension across the globe, RIA news agency reported.

"It is an ... event which has unilaterally upset the balance in the world and could lead to very tragic events in a whole host of areas across the globe where separatist sentiments are warming up," Patriarch Alexiy II said.

The United States and most European Union countries say Serbia relinquished the moral right to rule the people of Kosovo because of brutality under late President Slobodan Milosevic.