Russia attacked on Thursday the latest United Nations draft resolution on the future of the province of Kosovo, saying it amounted to the same old Western-backed plan for independence dressed up in new language.
Europeans and the United States have drafted a fresh UN resolution that would order 120 days of negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority but no longer automatically call for independence.
"The problem of a decision on the independence of Kosovo has not been taken off the agenda," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after meeting his Ghanaian counterpart Nana Akufo-Addo.
"Behind diplomatic rhetoric, there is the conclusion that after the talks ... the Ahtisaari plan comes into effect," he added. The document would be the third attempt to get agreement from Russia, which has veto power in the 15-nation UN Security Council. Moscow has said that Kosovo, a Serbian province, could not be severed without Belgrade's consent.
A draft text of the new resolution, obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, called for European instead of UN supervision in an effort to end Serbia's role - wording which is unlikely to please Moscow.
Specifically the draft, subject to revision, follows a plan by UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari by deciding to put in place a European overseer and European-led police instead of the current UN mission.
A move to European control in Kosovo would give Moscow less control than under the current UN arrangement and could be seen by Russia as an attempt to start moving towards independence for the province by stealth.
Lavrov said it was positive that the new draft called for negotiations between the two sides to continue, although he added that "four months for talks is too little in my view".
He also said the wording was positive in that it did not mention automatic independence for Kosovo but then reiterated Russia's long-standing position that it would only support a resolution that was acceptable for both sides.
Russia has taken a consistently hard line against the West on Kosovo. Diplomats here say this reflects the country's new, more assertive tone in foreign policy and a desire to use its new economic might to recover some of its former political clout on the world stage.