Serbia moves against Kosovo independence

Serbia and Russia stepped up warnings Thursday over an imminent independence declaration by Kosovo, saying the Western-backed move would be an illegal assault on Serbian sovereignty.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the government was meeting to draft measures pre-emptively annulling "illegal acts" to create a "puppet" state in the former Yugoslav republic.
Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin said any "unilateral declaration of independence would be immoral and illegal."
"The territorial integrity of states is enshrined in the principles of international law," Putin told an annual press conference in the Kremlin.
The rhetorical blitz came ahead of a UN Security Council session later Thursday where Belgrade and Moscow will put their case against independence for the ethnic Albanian-majority southern Serbian province.
The gathering was called by Serbia and its traditonal ally, Russia, three days ahead of the expected declaration of independence by Kosovo's Albanian leadership on Sunday.
Moscow has backed Belgrade in its strong opposition to independence of Kosovo, a Serbian province run by the United Nations since its 1998-1999 war.
"The proclamation of a fake state on Serbia's soil signals the collapse of the UN Charter, the collapse of the (UN Security Council) Resolution 1244 and of international law on which European and world order are based," Kostunica told the daily Glas Javnosti.
He said Kosovo independence would be a form of "legal violence that has never happened since the UN has existed" and condemned the "humiliation" of his country.
"There would be no bigger humiliation of Serbia than if it itself ... even indirectly approved the existence of this puppet creation in its territory," he added.
Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic indicated he would warn the UN Security Council of the "consequences of making a dangerous precedent."