The Current Discussion: Are the U.S. and Europe right to recognize Kosovo and continue to poke Russia with a stick?

Kosovo has evolved as an issue of consensus among the Russian leadership as well as the public. The Russian people – from nationalist hawks to liberal Westernizers – all agree that Kosovo independence is not a good idea.

Affinity with Serbia and the Serbs does not play an important role. Slavic or Orthodox brotherhood may be an issue for those on the nationalist front, but otherwise it’s of little interest here.

For moderate Russians, Kosovo’s independence in itself may be OK —it is its recognition by Western countries that matters. Independent political commentators, as well those among the intellectual circles, believe that the West is creating a dangerous precedent by effectively enforcing a division of a country (Serbia) without its consent; that the West disregards the consequences of such an enforcement - not just in Abkhazia or South Ossetia, the two secessionist territories of Georgia, but elsewhere in the world.

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