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

To: The Philosopher who wrote (7349)	5/7/1999 9:00:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Yeltsin Blasts NATO, Sees Few Gains With G8 MOSCOW, May. 07, 1999 -- (Reuters) Russian President Boris Yeltsin renewed criticism of NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia on Thursday and said the threat of war was hanging over Europe. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that despite some progress at Thursday's meeting of his colleagues from the G8 major powers in Bonn, Moscow was not satisfied with the vague strategy they had approved to settle the Kosovo crisis. The alliance still wants to lead a peace force for Kosovo and the West rebuffed Russia's call for a halt to NATO strikes. The G8 -- Russia, the United States, Canada, Italy, France, Japan, Germany and Britain -- agreed on a strategy for resolving the Kosovo crisis, which included calls for a Yugoslav troop withdrawal from the province and for international civil and security presence there to protect returning refugees. The Kremlin issued a statement containing Yeltsin's anti-NATO remarks even before the meeting was over. "Our peoples achieved lasting peace at the cost of huge efforts and sacrifices. However, the shadow of war is hanging over Europe today," Yeltsin said in a statement marking the 55th anniversary of the liberation of the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, now in Ukraine, from Nazi German troops. "NATO is carrying out naked aggression against a sovereign state -- Yugoslavia. The bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, bringing death among the civilian population, cannot leave anyone indifferent, especially those who suffered all the horrors of war." Yeltsin said that peace must be restored, based on the principles established by the United Nations. Russia's Balkans envoy, Victor Chernomyrdin, briefed Yeltsin earlier on Thursday on his mediation efforts and said his immediate task remained to narrow differences with the West over Yugoslavia. It was his first meeting with Yeltsin since returning from the United States, where he met U.S. leaders and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "The result of all our work and talks is...that the positions are nearing each other," he told Russian television. Chernomyrdin said he might hold new meetings with Western and Yugoslav leaders in the near future, for which he planned to travel to Europe first and then to Belgrade. Chernomyrdin, who made a number of diplomatic calls on Thursday, discussed the Kosovo crisis by telephone with Annan. "We hope for a greater activity of the United Nations in solving the crisis, that they put both sides at the negotiations table under their auspices. We will be around, we will be mediating," Chernomyrdin said. Chernomyrdin also held talks with visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes, who said there had been progress over Yugoslavia in the last few days but cautioned against expectations of an immediate breakthrough. Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine were likely to visit Moscow soon for more discussions on Kosovo. 1999 Copyright Reuters Limited