Russian President Vladimir Putin swiped indirectly at the West on Monday over the growing ethnic Albanian insurrection in Macedonia, which threatens to spark a wider conflict.
"Unfortunately, the situation there is turning out as we predicted. Having armed illegal Albanian separatists, today no one knows what to do. The situation there is out of control," Putin said according to Interfax.
Russia fiercely condemned the 11-week NATO air campaign in 1999 which forced its traditional ally, Belgrade, to withdraw from the majority ethnic Albanian Serbian province of Kosovo.
It has accused Western nations of favoring Kosovo's ethnic Albanian separatists who want the territory to become independent.
Putin told a cabinet meeting in Moscow that he had dispatched Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to the region in a bid to help resolve the spiraling conflict.
"The situation greatly concerns countries in the region and Russia. The Russian foreign minister will make efforts to forge a common stance with our partners in the region and the Europe and the United States," he said in remarks broadcast on television.
Ivanov, on a Balkans tour, warned Sunday that the international community must stop the conflict in Macedonia now or face a regional war engulfing the Balkans.
"If the violence is not stopped now in Macedonia it will spread to other Balkans countries," said Ivanov, who arrived in Belgrade at the start of a visit set to include Kosovo, the Macedonian capital Skopje and the Albanian capital Tirana.
"We are seriously concerned about the situation in the Balkans. What we are witnessing is international terrorism, which is a threat to the stability of the Balkans," Russia's top diplomat added.
Heavy fighting rumbled through the night into Monday on the edges of Tetovo as Macedonia police pressed on with their battle against ethnic Albanian guerrillas near the border with Kosovo.
As the crisis deepened, with Macedonia mobilizing reserve troops in a bid to stave off civil war in the multi-ethnic state, EU foreign policy high representative Javier Solana was due to visit Skopje -- MOSCOW (AFP)
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