Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised the possibility his country may veto a United Nations Security Council decision on the status of Serbia's southern province of Kosovo
Mr. Putin told the Financial Times in an interview published Monday that if the solution is not acceptable to Moscow, Russia will not hold back from using its veto.
President Putin said his government wants the rules of international relations to be applied to all regions equally. He said it would be wrong to apply one rule for Kosovo and others for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the two breakaway regions of Georgia.
Russia has warned repeatedly that sovereignty for the U.N.-administered Serbian province, as sought by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, could influence developments in efforts to settle territorial disputes in areas of the former Soviet Union.
United Nations-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo Albanians have achieved no major progress. U.N. negotiators have said they plan to make a recommendation on future control of the province by the end of the year.
Kosovo has been under U.N. administration since 1999, when NATO airstrikes drove Serbian and Yugoslav security forces from the province.
