NEWSMAKER-Russia's
urbane Ivanov unsheathes
claws
02:39 p.m Apr 13, 1999 Eastern
By Gareth Jones
MOSCOW, April 13 (Reuters) -
NATO's bombing campaign
against Yugoslavia has turned
Russia's urbane, politely-spoken
foreign minister into an
anti-Western polemicist firing off
verbal volleys reminiscent of the
worst days of the Cold War.
Now, with Russia seen as a major
player in diplomatic efforts to end
the conflict, U.S. Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright has
attempted to mend fences.
Igor Ivanov, who met Albright in
Oslo on Tuesday, has emerged as
the main conduit of Russian anger
over the NATO air strikes.
''We have seen the 'contribution'
NATO has to make to a resolution
of the Kosovo problem. As a
result of that 'contribution' ordinary
civilians are dying,'' the foreign
minister said in the first days of the
bombing campaign.
The balding career diplomat has
accused NATO of ''blatant
genocide'' in Yugoslavia and has
called for a criminal trial of those
responsible for the air attacks.
In Oslo on Tuesday he was more
diplomatic, but he made his chief
point coldly clear.
''Russia's position on NATO's use
of force in Kosovo remains
unchanged,'' he said in his opening
remarks to a news conference.
But despite his stern rhetoric,
Ivanov is not a natural hawk and
has been careful to keep channels
open to the West, making clear
Russia will not get sucked into any
Balkan war.
''We are interested in preserving
all the positive things that have
developed over the last few
years...We have no interest in any
return to the confrontation of the
Cold War era,'' he said late last
month.
Prime Minister Primakov, a
69-year-old former intelligence
chief, has been seen as more
naturally hostile to the West than
Ivanov, who replaced him as
foreign minister when Primakov
became premier last September.
While Primakov is a Middle East
expert and a fluent Arabic speaker
who counts Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein among his
acquaintances, Ivanov's career has
been closely tied up with western
Europe.
A former Russian ambassador to
Spain, Ivanov speaks English and
Spanish and has a long experience
of Balkan affairs.
But with Primakov focusing mainly
on domestic policy these days, at
least in public, Ivanov has become
the face of Russia's rage at
NATO's strikes.
He has given regular briefings,
methodically and tirelessly
repeating Russia's fierce opposition
to the strikes and blaming NATO
for the humanitarian crisis in the
Balkans.
Kosovo is not the only foreign
issue on which Russia and the
West have differed since Ivanov
became foreign minister.
Ivanov has also spoken out against
U.S. and British military action in
Iraq and has expressed concern
over Washington's plans to
develop a Star Wars-style missile
defence umbrella, saying this
undermines the 1972 Anti-Ballistic
Missile (ABM) treaty.
Born in 1945, Ivanov is a graduate
of the Moscow State Institute of
Foreign Languages. He is married
with one daughter.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. |
