Russia's NATO envoy says U.S. wants to divide and rule

Russia's ambassador to NATO suggested Sunday that Kosovo's split from Serbia was the result of an imperialistic American effort to "divide and rule."

In heated remarks in a televised interview, Dmitry Rogozin also reiterated Russia's warning that Western recognition of Kosovo could encourage separatism worldwide, using Germany's large ethnic Turkish population as an example.

Ethnic Turks in Berlin might one day ask: "Why should we not create our own — not Kosovo but Berlinosovo, Abrikosovo, Kokosovo and so forth," said Rogozin, a former lawmaker and nationalist political party leader, apparently referring to the name of the German capital and to apricots and coconuts.

"It's the atomization of the world," Rogozin said on state-run Vesti-24 television. "Who benefits from this? Only those who prefer to divide and rule — the old imperial principle. This is first of all the United States of America."

By recognizing Kosovo over the opposition of Serbia and without U.N. approval, Rogozin said, Western nations were replacing international law with a system in which "there will be only one rule: he who has brute physical power is strong and is right."

Russia, he stressed, must maintain a strong military to ensure its security.

But, he said "We do not intend to interfere in some military, forceful way in a hot spot far from our borders," Rogozin said. The developments there do not constitute "direct attacks on Russia, direct attacks on our national interests," he said.