"Kosovo created to serve interests of big powers"

BELGRADE -- "The Republic of Kosovo" was created to serve the interests of big powers who control money flow, says a Moscow Institute of International Relations member.

According to Elena Ponomareva, this self-styled "republic" came to be as a result of the aggression that the U.S. and NATO perpetrated against the sovereign state of Serbia, and this creation now serves the interests of "the world elites".

"Specifically, this is about several dozen families of royals, aristocrats and bankers who control the main global financial flows and activities of multinational companies," Ponomareva asserted, according to a Srna news agency report carried by the Mondo website.

On the fifth anniversary of the ethnic Albanian unilateral declaration of independence, she told the Voice of Russia that the "self-proclaimed republic" was a hotbed of international crime, illegal business activities, and latent terrorism:

"Kosovo is a prime example of a mafia-terrorist run state and is on par with Afghanistan - which was one of the first countries to recognize it - and Columbia, Sudan, Somalia."

According to this expert, one view "that should not be neglected" is that of British journalist and academic John Laughland, a member of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, who noted that "the sovereignty of Kosovo is fiction, while real power is in the hands of EU clerks and NATO soldiers".

She added that "clearly, under the conditions of a mafia-terrorist regime there are no guarantees that human rights of Serbs would be respected".

Ponomareva noted that many American officials, whether former or those currently posted in Kosovo, became owners or co-owners of many companies there, primarily those in the telecommunications and energy sector:

"General Wesley Clark, who commanded NATO forces during the bombing of Serbia, is now the owner of a Canadian energy company that actively utilizes coal and synthetic fuel products from Kosovo. (Former U.S. Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright owns a 75-percent stake in the K-Telecom company. In effect, Albright is a monopolist when it comes to telecommunications in Kosovo."

According to her, the media in the U.S. have been pointing out that former officials were taking part in privatizations in Kosovo and investig there in order to achieve their business and personal interests.

"Priština would seem to be the only town anywhere in the world where Bob Dole Street intersects Bill Clinton Boulevard," Ponomareva concluded.