Serbia's predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo province, which has a population of two million, has been a UN protectorate since NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia ended a war between Serb forces and Albanian separatists in 1999.
Marti Ahtisaari, a special UN envoy for talks on Kosovo, said March 10 he would return his resolution proposals to the UN Security Council following fruitless top-level talks in Vienna between Pristina and Belgrade.
Mikhail Kamynin said: "We believe the decision of Ahtisaari, the special envoy of the UN secretary general, to terminate talks and submit his status groundwork to the UN is premature."
Ahtisaari has proposed that the Kosovo province be granted internationally supervised sovereignty, but Serbian authorities have strongly opposed his plan as threatening Serbia's national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Serbian parliament unanimously approved a resolution February 14 rejecting some provisions of the plan.
Kamynin said the fruitless outcome of the talks was not unexpected, as Ahtisaari's proposals were made in favor of only one side, contained "statements on the predetermined sovereignty of the [Kosovo] province and established artificial timeframes hampering the search for a compromise."
He said the sides should "continue unbiased consultations."
Russian officials have repeatedly said that granting sovereignty to Kosovo would set a precedent, and that the international community would then have to recognize as independent separatist regions in the former Soviet Union, namely Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Moldova's Transdnestr.
As a veto-wielding member in the 15-nation UN Security Council and a traditional ally of Serbia, Russia has insisted that a decision on Kosovo should satisfy both Kosovar and Serbian authorities, and must be reached through negotiations.
Unlike Russia, NATO has made it clear that it favors independence for Kosovo, but the final decision will be up to the UN Security Council, which will hear Ahtisaari's proposals in mid-March.
