Since the Crimean referendum, some countries have found it difficult to take an unequivocal position on the Ukraine-Russia conflict. For the Balkan states trying to comply with international law and principles, it has become even more confusing since Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the Crimean case by referring to Kosovo's secession from Serbia.
Russia has strongly opposed Kosovo's independence citing the need to uphold the territorial integrity of Serbia, while the US and the majority of Western countries supported and recognised the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo in 2008. They then claimed that Kosovo is a sui generis case and was entitled to secession because the former regime of Slobodan Milosevic had committed atrocities against Kosovo Albanians.
Now the "Great Powers" have reversed their arguments and switched sides. Washington now claims that it is unacceptable to recognise the secession of any region especially when it is not done in agreement with the central government, while Moscow says that if it had been possible for Kosovo, it is now possible for Crimea.
It is complicated for Washington to prove that Kosovo was an isolated case which would not effect future secessions all over the world, especially when some policy experts now claim that, "Kosovo is very much a legitimate precedent," as Dimitri K Simes, president of the Center for National Interest, a Washington think-tank has said.
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