From the point of view of the West, Slavs have no right to self-determination, unlike Albanians. The West completely ignored the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia. There was no threat to the population of Kosovo, which supposedly had to be saved.

This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, quoted by the Serbian official Politika.

Comparing the situations in the Republic of Kosovo and in the illegally Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, Lavrov said that "the West opposes the referendum in Crimea while supporting the unilateral declaration of independence of the Serbian province due to racism."

"No, it can't, you are Slavs and we are Albanians here. This is racist stuff... We are no longer beholden to anyone, we will behave as we want," Lavrov told state media.

He said that "there was no referendum in Kosovo and Metohija" and "former UN representative Marty Ahtisaari only said that 'Kosovo is independent' at the behest of the United States."

"The Americans told him to do it - and he did it. The West completely ignored Yugoslavia's territorial integrity! At the time of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, there was no fighting going on in the territory around that part of Serbia and no threat to the population of Kosovo, which was supposedly to be saved. There was a resolution that was adopted even before Kosovo declared independence. The UN Security Council decided that the Serbian police should be there, that Serbian border guards should be stationed on Kosovo's external border - but they just spat that out! And they went down the path of secession," Lavrov added.

BGNES recalls that on March 24, 1999, NATO launched the 78-day air operation "Allied Force" to force the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade to end its brutal repression of Kosovo Albanians and their forced deportation in the hundreds of thousands, and to withdraw its military and police forces from Kosovo. Thanks to this intervention, more bloodshed among the civilian population was prevented. | BGNES