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Real reality: Transdniestria has its own flag, while Kosovo doesn't. Just one of dozens of differences between the two

PRISTINA (Tiraspol Times) - On the issue of Kosovo independence, Russia calls the U.S. view a ‘pseudo-reality’ and says that clinging to a legal fiction which doesn't exist in the real world is a sure-fire way promote instability in the Balkans.

In an interview published Wednesday, Russia’s envoy to Kosovo accused the United States of living in a “pseudo-reality” by claiming that the Serbian province already has de facto independence.

" - The Americans believe that Kosovo’s de facto separation has already taken place. We look at the situation from the point of view of international law, not pseudo-reality," Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko told the Izvestia newspaper. He added that several Western countries already assumed that Kosovo independence was inevitable, and said that "mildly speaking, this does not help Serbian-Albanian dialogue."

The United States State Department is the world's leading advocate of independence for Kosovo, having said lately that the area is already 'de facto' independent. This is despite the fact that Kosovo is governed by the international community as a UN protectorate with no separate sovereignty. Kosovo also does not have a truly independent parliament, no foreign ministry and not even a flag of its own.

Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Russia’s envoy to Kosovo, says the United States portrays a “pseudo-reality” of a situation that simply does not exist in Kosovo (Photo: SETimes).

De facto independent Transdniestria

Whereas Kosovo doesn't have its own flag or official coat of amrs, Transdniestria (officially: Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica) has plenty. And not only that: The small country with the long name has a level of true and sovereign independence that Kosovo is lacking.

" - Transnistria has been de facto independent since the early 1990s," says Bruno Coppieters, head of the Political Sciences Department at Brussels Free University.

At least one of Transdniestria's closest neighbors agree. An official report from the government of Ukraine, which is posted on its government portal kmu.gov.ua, is very clear on the point:

"Though de jure this republic remains unrecognized by the international community, de facto Transdniestria possesses all the attributes which are inherent in independent states, such as a Constitution, national flag, anthem, coat-of-arms, bodies of state authority, army, national monetary unit, and so on."

Aid group "People in Need", an NGO, confirms in its 2006 report that Transdniestria "has all the attributes of an independent state: its president, parliament, elections, army (which is bigger than the Moldovan army), currency, custom services etc."

The criteria for determining whether statehood has objectively been established include a reasonably well-defined territory, a permanent population, a stable government, the capacity to enter into relations with other states and substantial independence from other states, according to UN advisor James Crawford, author of The Creation of States in International Law.

Analyzing whether Transdniestria is currently a state, American commentator Michael Garner says that it is much more of a state than Kosovo is.

" - Transdniestria already meets the requirements for statehood under international law. Kosovo doesn't, at least not yet. That is the reality which is supported on the facts alone, instead of a "pseudo-reality" based on wishful thinking," says Garner. (With information from AFP)

See also:
» Kosovo diplomat: Transnistria has more reasons for independence than Kosovo [1]
» When will Russia apply "The Reverse Holbrooke?" [2]
» Double standards over Kosovo [3]
» "Transnistria independence before Kosovo" says top Washington expert [4]