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Russia could send as many as 10,000 troops to Kosovo to enforce the peace deal

June 10, 1999
Web posted at: 7:17 p.m. EDT (2317 GMT)

In this story: NATO wants unified command Many Russians oppose peace deal RELATED STORIES, SITES

MOSCOW (CNN) -- Welcoming NATO's suspension of its air campaign against Yugoslavia, Russian defense officials met with a U.S. delegation to Moscow Thursday to work out differences over Russia's precise role in a Kosovo peacekeeping mission.

NATO is poised to deploy a 50,000-strong force into the Serbian province to enforce a U.N.-endorsed peace deal with Yugoslavia and help hundreds of thousands of Kosovo refugees return home.

Russia has said it could send as many as 10,000 troops to Kosovo, but it refuses to place them under NATO command. Russian leaders have suggested their troops be given a separate sector of the province, an idea NATO opposes.

"We're not saying the Russian sector should be completely ours. It would be a sector in which Russia would play a central role and it would include other countries as well," Russian Gen. Leonid Ivashov said, after talks with his U.S. counterparts.

NATO wants unified command

NATO, however, is insisting on a unified command structure with NATO at the helm.

"We feel very strongly, and I think that our Russian colleagues agree, that unity of command is very important, and unity of command means that all of Kosovo will be under one command arrangement," said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, after a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stephasin.

Ivashov is proposing a command structure similar to that in Bosnia, where Russian troops serve under NATO's operational command, but take orders directly from Russian general headquarters.

"These are tough issues," Talbott said. "It's a work in progress."

Talks were to continue on Friday.

Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev gave a "preliminary order" Thursday authorizing the deployment of troops, and an airborne brigade of 2,500 was making preparations to enter the province, the Interfax news agency reported. It was not clear when they might reach Kosovo.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin called NATO's bombing pause a "step in the right" direction, but he demanded a complete end to the military operation.

"A pause is good, but it's not enough," Yeltsin said in a statement. He also called for a major reconstruction effort in Yugoslavia.

U.S. President Bill Clinton spoke to Yeltsin by telephone and thanked him for Russia's mediation efforts in the Kosovo conflict.

NATO has opposed a Russian suggestion that their troops get a separate section of Kosovo during the upcoming peacekeeping mission

Many Russians oppose peace deal

Despite Yeltsin's support for the peace plan, many Russian political and military leaders have expressed strong opposition, charging that Russia yielded to NATO's demands and failed to defend Yugoslavia, an ally.

Stephasin defended the government's compromise.

"Russia made large concessions on Kosovo, but they are justified because an end must be put to the war," Stephasin told Talbott.

Efforts to win support for the peace deal fell on deaf ears in the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament. Russian lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution Thursday urging Yeltsin to fire his special envoy to the Balkans, Viktor Chernomyrdin, charging he had sold out Russia's interests to NATO.

Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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