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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (4948)	4/22/1999 12:56:00 AM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Les, We cannot continue the bombing at the current pace as we are running out of smart ammunition. We are down to only 70 cruise missiles worldwide no more JDAM weaponry,and will be forced to conventional weapons shortly. That means flying at low altitudes to deliver ordnance properly.. Anyone ask yet why we are fightng a war without a declaration of war contrary to our Constitution? Finally- why the Russians care about the war in Kosovo.... Chernomyrdin Meets with CIS Backsliders 2053 GMT, 990421 Russia's special envoy on the Kosovo crisis, former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, spent the past two days attempting to win support from three reluctant CIS members – Ukraine, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Chernomyrdin told reporters that the three countries and Russia had reached common positions on the crisis in Kosovo – Yugoslavia must not be divided and the refugees must return. What was not explicitly mentioned was any agreement that NATO should immediately cease military action against Yugoslavia. Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine are all pressing for closer relations with NATO, if not full membership in the organization. The three even held four days of joint military exercises in Georgia last week, under the auspices of NATO's Partnership for Peace program. On April 17, the three countries' presidents attended the opening of the new Baku-Supsa oil pipeline, a route which avoids Russia and competes with the older Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline. At a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States on April 2, both Georgia and Azerbaijan refused to sign a joint statement condemning NATO's attack on Yugoslavia. Georgia and Azerbaijan also opted out of the CIS Collective Security Treaty. That Chernomyrdin would begin his mission as Russia's special envoy on Kosovo by travelling to Baku, Tbilisi, and Kiev demonstrates clearly that, for Moscow, the crisis is not about Kosovo but about NATO. Contrary to the current declarations of their respective parliaments, Russia and Yugoslavia do not share a history of warm friendship. Yugoslavia's bunkers were built during the Cold War in preparation for a Soviet invasion, not a NATO attack. Russia's national interests are not fundamentally threatened by the flattening of Belgrade – they are threatened by the flattening of Belgrade by NATO. For Russia this crisis is about the expansion of NATO, both in terms of geography and of mandate. It is about the encirclement of Russia.