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VDH is of course right. A big fat bluff. Kosovo is a failed state and hardly "independent". It will be run as a EU protectorate, and there is no way the EU will ever be able to protect it against Russia if it really came to that.

Kosovo - the newest EU province

In fact, ultimate executive power will remain with the Eurocrats who govern the territory. The EU also has a monopoly on the use of legitimate force in Kosovo. Its officials even dictated the terms on which independence could be reached, forbidding the use of the double-headed eagle as a flag and ruling out a plebiscite on union with neighbouring Albania.

For all the fuss, Kosovo is not independent in any meaningful sense. It is an EU satrapy. Its subordination is reinforced by its symbols. Its flag is a variant on the EU emblem: stars on a blue background. And, at its independence ceremony, the EU anthem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, was played.

Bush, the EU foreign ministers and some PMs have all tried to paint Kosovo as something unique, a situation sui generis which should not be seen as a go ahead for other secessionist movements.

If they really believed that anyone would listen, then we should be able to sell them loads and loads of used bridges. Stupidity galore!

As you've noted, already Abkhazia and South Ossetia have decided to ask Russia and the United Nations to recognise their own independence in the wake of Sunday's unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo.

Kosovo independence emboldens South Caucasus breakaway republics

But they are not the only ones. Leaders of Ngorno-Karabakh have also expressed their hope that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence would set a precedent for their own unrecognised South Caucasian republic, officially part of Azerbaijan. And in Bosnia the serb enclave Republica Srebska one party has asked the local government to declare indendence.

Yes, this can certainly be a legacy that will be remembered.