Eight years ago, the west went to war over the fate of Kosovo, the impoverished scrap of land that is chiefly populated by ethnic Albanians but still formally part of Serbia.

By now, according to plans drawn up in Brussels and Washington, Kosovo was due to be firmly on the path to independence. But that outcome looks a long way away. Russian intransigence has blocked the passage of a plan proposed by Martti Ahtisaari, a UN special envoy, that would have prepared Kosovo, now under UN administration, for independence under the auspices of the European Union.