Russia criticizes Nobel award for Ahtisaari (Extra)

Oct 10, 2008, 12:15 GMT

Moscow - Russian diplomats and politicians on Friday slammed the award of the Nobel Prize to ex-Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari as an ill-veiled political ploy to justify Kosovo's independence.

Ahtisaari, who won the honour for 'more than three decades' of peace brokering, the committee said, is persona non grata in Russia for advocating Kosovo's independence from Serbia in his post as UN envoy to the region from 2005.

'I can't fathom how the Nobel Prize or any other award could be granted Ahtisaari,' Russia's NATO envoy was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying in Brussels. 'He is the author of a whole slew of actions that have distorted and impinge on international law and the decision of the UN security Council.'

Ahtisaari resigned from efforts to reach a resolution in Kosovo in 2007 as Russia - a permanent member of the UN Security Council - vehemently opposed his plan.

Moscow has continued to lobby against recognition in the West of Kosovo's declaration of independence less than a year later, warning it would lead to a wave of cries for self-determination worldwide.

Leonid Slutsky, deputy head of Russia's parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, called Ahtisaari's peace plan for Kosovo the opening of 'Pandora's box.'

'The peaceful order has been broken,' he said, pointing to war in Georgia's two rebel regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia and Moscow's subsequent recognition of the two regions as a consequence of Western-backing of Kosovo's self-determination.

The reactions from Moscow on Friday to the world's most prestigious award for careers dedicated to peace underscored the deep rift in Russia's relations with the West in the wake of the war with Georgia two months ago.

Russian state television called the choice of Ahtisaari for the award political and carried a controversy earlier this week claiming that the Nobel committee was too Euro-centric.