Kosovo is the seventh and last fragment of the old Communist Yugoslavia to become a sovereign state

National Review, March 10, 2008

Kosovo is the seventh and last fragment of the old Communist Yugoslavia to become a sovereign state. The Yugoslav breakup unleashed nationalist passions, genocide, and armed intervention from outside: in the case of Kosovo, nothing less than occupation by NATO. Nine in ten of the 2 million Kosovars are Muslim Albanians.

They pushed for independence--often violently--even before Slobodan Milosevic committed his outrages against them, and could not have been persuaded to accept anything less. But the Kosovar minority are Orthodox Serbs. They greatly resent being dispossessed of what they see as their ancestral lands, as well as the reprisals that Kosovar Albanians have inflicted on them since NATO's intervention. So the rejoicing in Pristina, the Kosovar capital, is being answered with angry demonstrations in Belgrade, the Serb capital. Worth watching in the third ring is Russia, which has a history of backing the Serbs through thick and thin. Already searching to finance and even arm separatist groups that would hurt Western interests, Vladimir Putin has a glittering new arena in which to advance his version of the Cold War.