Russia's NATO envoy: US military "arming ex-terrorists" in Kosovo

Mar 20, 2008, 13:12 GMT

Moscow/Brussels - Russia's firebrand envoy to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Thursday that US military aid to Kosovo amounted to arming 'former terrorists.'

Responding to news of US President George W Bush approval of military aid to Kosovo, Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin warned that such a move could lead to 'new terrorist clashes in the Balkans.'

'To give former terrorists weapons for the war against terrorism appears at least amusing if not worse,' the Interfax news agency quoted Rogozin as saying from Brussels.

'It is well known that those in power in Kosovo came in as the organizers and leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which many states recognized as a terrorist organization,' he said.

The US was among the first nations to recognize Kosovo after it split from Serbia, despite heavy protest from Russia, which warned that example of the province's independence would fan the flames of separatist struggles worldwide.