MOSCOW (CNN) -- Wrapping up his final term in office, Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday offered biting criticism of what he called European "double standards" and stood by his country's long-standing objection to Kosovo's plan to declare independence.
Putin is widely expected to become prime minister once his presidential term ends
Putin addressed a myriad of reporters' questions -- 100 in all -- at the annual presidential news conference, his final one before his term ends. The marathon conference involved more than 1,300 reporters and lasted for four hours and 40 minutes -- the longest of all of Putin's annual news conferences.
If his self-appointed successor Dmitry Medvedev wins the March 2 presidential vote -- which is widely expected -- Putin has been tapped to become the country's next prime minister.
He described his two terms as president as "gifts from the Russian people and from God" and said he would stand by the country's basic law "that this term is the final term."
"At this juncture, I don't have to cry or end my career, but I have to rejoice that I have an opportunity to work elsewhere and serve my country elsewhere," he said.
Last week, Europe's top election watchdog -- the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) -- announced it would not monitor next month's election as planned because Moscow had imposed severe restrictions.
But Putin ridiculed the organization's name and said perhaps the monitoring agency should concentrate on "teaching their wives to make borscht" rather than teaching countries how to run their elections.
"I don't think that anyone is tempted to present ultimatums to Russia especially such organizations with abbreviations sounding like, 'Oh dear,'" he said.
He said Russia has "fully implemented" all of its commitments with its European partners, including the OSCE.
"It states that we shall invite representatives from the OSCE to monitor (elections), but nowhere does it say how many or for how long," Putin said.
The OSCE said the limitations included Moscow's refusal to allow monitors to arrive two weeks before the election, which the OSCE said was necessary to monitor the campaigning.
The group said Russia had refused to allow an OSCE group to visit in December to plan its election mission. It said Russia eventually allowed the group in last week, but it severely restricted the group's composition and duration.
But Russian leaders expressed surprise that the OSCE called off its mission simply because Russia refused to agree to the group's terms, calling it an "ultimatum."
"We will not let anyone force anything upon us," Putin said. "This is the basic principle of international law."
Another basic principle of international law, Putin said, is "the territorial integrity of states" -- and any move by Kosovo to declare independence from Serbia would violate that principle, according to the Russian leader.
"I would like to underline the fact that we think that support of unilateral announcement of Kosovo is not moral or legal," Putin said.
At the request of Serbia -- a close ally of Russia -- the United Nations Security Council will hold a private debate on the matter on Thursday. European Union officials expect Kosovo to declare its independence on Sunday, according to a report from Novosti, the Russian News and Information Agency.
Both the EU and the United States fully back independence for Kosovo, a province of Serbia that has been under U.N. control since shortly after NATO warplanes forced out Serbian forces in 1999.
NATO acted after Serbian forces repressed an uprising of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo with a brutal campaign that spawned reports of ethnic cleansing and sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of refugees.
Putin questioned why Kosovo should receive the West's backing for independence when other separatist groups -- including the Basques in Spain -- and breakaway republics -- including the Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus -- have no support.
"Are you not ashamed, you Europeans, treating the same problems with double standards in different regions of the world?" Putin asked.
"You've been always telling us Kosovo is allegedly a special case. That's not true, that's a lie.
"We need to hammer out unified principles to (deal with) these issues."
At one point, the focus of the news conference shifted to the U.S. presidential election when a Russian reporter asked Putin to respond to a remark by Hillary Clinton questioning whether the Russian leader, as a former KGB officer, has a soul.
"The minimum a statesperson should have is a head," he said. His remark was met with laughter. "To build on interstate relations it is necessary to be guided by the fundamental interest of your own country, not by emotions. "
Putin restated his criticism of the U.S. plan to deploy parts of a missile defense shield to Poland and the Czech Republic, and threatened to "re-target some of our systems to those targets."
The Bush administration has proposed a limited missile shield it says will be used to protect against attacks from rogue nations. Bush has repeatedly said the missile defense system would not be aimed at Russia, but Putin has suggested instead that the system be based in countries more friendly to Moscow.
Putin also threatened to point Russian missiles at "targets that will threaten our security" if Ukraine joins NATO.
In both instances, Putin said the leaders are acting in violation of what the people want.
"I oblige to speak about this frankly and openly to avoid later passing the buck for such a situation," he said.
Watch what Putin had to say at his final presidential news conference. » E-mail to a friend
All About Vladimir Putin • Russia • Kosovo
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Kosovars celebrated by driving their cars waving Albanian flags through several European cities, such as here in Lausanne.
Brussels.
At 15:00 GMT today, Kosovo announced its independence from Serbia. Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi declared that Kosovo would become a democratic country and would respect the rights of all its communities. It is expected that several countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States and most members of the European Union, will recognise its independence on Monday. Serbia and Russia are against an independent Kosovo. Approximately 10% of Kosovars are of Serbian descent, the majority is Albanian.

The declaration was passed unanimously by the Kosovar parliament, who subsequently signed it. The Prime Minister told MPs that "We have waited for this day for a very long time", and that "the independence of Kosovo marks the end of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia". He also said that Kosovo would be working to follow the plan drawn up by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, and the United Nations. MPs have also selected a new flag (pictured on the right), showing the shape of the country in gold, on a blue background, with six white stars.

The Serbian Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica said that the declaration made Kosovo a ''"false state"''. Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic had this to say about the declaration: 



He had previously said that if Kosovo were to declare independence, ''"we shall undertake all diplomatic, political and economic measures designed to impede and reverse this direct and unprovoked attack on our sovereignty."''