What the Kosovan officials did to Russian diplomat Mikhail Krasnoshchekov is flagrant, stated First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy during the discussion of the situation in Kosovo. He described the explanations of the Kosovo representatives as "unworthy" of the UN Security Council meeting room.
Our correspondent Alexander Khristenko is reporting on what roused Russia's indignation.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Kosovo is live at the Security Council meeting. Zahir Tanin confirms that a Kosovan special ops unit beat and illegally arrested two members of the mission with immunity, one of them being a Russian, Mikhail Krasnoshchekov.
Zahir Tanin, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo: "Both employees appeared to have been exposed to excessive force and ill-treatment after their arrest by the police, as a result of which they suffered bodily injuries, which required hospitalization. The immunity of our staff regarding arrests and detentions was violated".
On May 28th, a Kosovan special ops unit entered the northern regions of the province, where mostly Serbs live, in armored cars and with weapons under the pretext of conducting operations against organized crime. Officers rushed into the Serbs' homes, beat them, and arrested more than 20 people. One of the UN staff went silent, and his colleague Mikhail Krasnoshchekov was sent to check if he was okay. After the meeting with the Kosovan special forces, the peacekeeper received three fractures. They clubbed him and hit his head against the car. There is eyewitness evidence and videos of the injuries that Krasnoshchekov received. But Vlora Çitaku, the ambassador of breakaway Kosovo to the USA, tried to present a different situation to the Security Council, as if nothing was wrong.
Vlora Çitaku: “He was sent to the hospital in Mitrovica. And I have a report from this hospital: "nothing serious". Russian citizen Mikhail Krasnoshchekov "interfered with the actions of the police."
Çitaku added that Krasnoshchekov allegedly carried a saw in his car.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN: "He turned out to cut trees for the barricades, carefully put the chainsaw in the trunk, stood in front of the barricades, and refused to provide a UNMIK employee ID card. Do you believe in such nonsense? It's a vibrant example of lies, insinuations, and airy dreams, fostering hatred towards Russia, which are unworthy of the Security Council meeting room. And you say this instead of apologizing for your compatriots' thuggish actions, which, frankly speaking, many of us expected".
But there were no apologies. Pristina clearly feels the unreserved support of Washington, Paris, and London. UN officers with immunity were beaten and arrested, but representatives of Western countries, speaking in the Security Council, just barely mentioned this topic. The UK representative even abstained from giving her opinion of the event. It's the obvious manifestation of double standards even in this area, which seems to be important to all. UN staff, belonging to various nations, work in hot spots around the world. What happened in Kosovo is an extremely dangerous precedent.
Western countries, which thought it wasn't such a big deal, generally advocate for reducing or even phasing out the UN mission in Kosovo. They say that the situation is under control and that NATO's KFOR is enough for monitoring. The Kosovan special forces raid and blatant beatings of UN staff showed that the situation was far from normal. Russia intends to do its best to ensure that the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo continues to work in full.
Alexander Khristenko, Nikolai Koskin for Vesti from the USA.
