Wrote: Festim Rizanaj
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during a meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Moscow at the ambassadors' roundtable, claimed that the West uses double standards in dealing with international issues.
He emphasized that the principle of self-determination of peoples was applied to Kosovo to justify its independence, while the same principle is not accepted for Crimea and Donbas, where the local population has expressed the will to join Russia.
This claim of his was published in the Russian media, Russia Today Balkans (RT) and Sputnik, services in Serbian.
Lavrov and Russian officials continue to use the Kosovo case as a precedent to justify the annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine's Donbas, even though the comparison is baseless.
What did Lavrov claim?
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov claims that the West uses double standards in international politics. He says that the self-determination of peoples was supported by the West in the case of Kosovo, justifying its independence, while in the case of Crimea, Donbass and Novorossiya, the West supports the principle of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and does not recognize the will expressed by the local populations there.
"When necessary, the principle of self-determination of peoples is applied, as it did in the case of Kosovo and Metohija. When their goal is to support their protégés, their successors like the Ukrainian Nazi regime, then they adhere to the principle of territorial integrity and ignore everything that the people of Crimea, Donbass and Novorossiya have done," Lavrov was quoted as saying.
According to him, the West supports self-determination only when it suits its interests and defends territorial integrity when it serves its geopolitical policies.
Where are the differences in this comparison?
NATO did not invade Kosovo after expelling Serbian forces, but sent a peacekeeping mission. Russian troops, on the other hand, have established control over Crimea, even before a referendum on unification with Russia was held.
NATO intervened in Kosovo after evidence of Serbian crimes against Albanians, which included mass killings and expulsions from their settlements. Russian forces have intervened in Ukraine, although there have been no reports of abuses or violence against ethnic Russians.
Kosovo declared independence but did not join Albania. Crimea, which is inhabited mainly by Russian citizens, signed an agreement to join Russia two days after a referendum that the West judged undemocratic (here).
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 (hereIn 2010, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Kosovo's declaration of independence did not violate international law (hereKosovo's independence has so far been recognized by over 100 countries, including the US and most European Union countries (here).
Furthermore, Crimea is an integral part of the state of Ukraine which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 (here). The referendum in Crimea, held on March 16, 2014, was rejected in the same year as illegal – by the votes of 100 member states of the UN General Assembly (see here).
Although the comparison of Crimea to Kosovo is untenable, senior Russian officials continue to use it as an alibi, starting with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (see here, here).
The fact-checking platform, hibrid.info, on November 11 published the report “Comparison of Ukraine and Kosovo in Russian disinformation narratives.” It compares Russian narratives about Ukraine and their connection to Kosovo for the first time. (Full report)
Analyze:
During a meeting with heads of diplomatic missions in Moscow, Lavrov claimed that the West uses double standards, applying the principle of self-determination for Kosovo but denying it for Crimea and Donbass, where, according to him, the local population has expressed a desire to join Russia.
The facts show that the comparison of Kosovo with Crimea and Donbas is unfounded, as Kosovo declared independence under international administration, while Crimea was forcibly annexed by Russia and Donbas was occupied by Russian forces and Russian-backed separatist groups, in violation of international treaties and without broad legal support.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses Lavrov's statement as "False statement".
Reasoning:
In the category of truthfulness, those statements that contain statements related to objective facts, the accuracy of which can be determined through objective verification, are evaluated. Statements treated in this category receive the assessment – false statement, half-truth, or even true statement.