[From the Financial Times]
May 29 1999
Russians warn time running out for talks
By Our International Staff
Kosovo Victor Chernomyrdin, Russia's special Balkan envoy, met
yesterday for nine hours of talks with Slobodan Milosevic, after
declaring the Yugoslav president still the man to deal with despite
his indictment for alleged war crimes.
Mr Chernomyrdin left the talks without commenting on their substance.
But both he and Sergei Stepashin, Russia's new prime minister, made it
clear that without quick progress Russia was ready to pull out of the
peace process.
Before leaving for Belgrade, Mr Chernomyrdin said Thursday's decision
to indict Mr Milosevic by the international tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia would "complicate" the peace process, but said, "We deal
with the lawfully elected president of Yugoslavia and we will go on
dealing with him".
In addition, Mr Chernomyrdin expressed dissatisfaction with the
progress of several days of talks with Strobe Talbott, the US special
envoy, and Martti Ahtisaari, the European Union's envoy, aimed at
finding a common position.
Mr Chernomyrdin's impatience was shared in Moscow. Mr Stepashin said
that after Mr Chernomyrdin's return, "We will definitely be able to
answer whether further political dialogue is possible or whether
Yugoslavia will be sucked into a ground war."
In an extraordinary article in the Washington Post, Mr Chernomyrdin
had said that unless Nato stopped bombing Yugoslavia soon, he would
advise Russian President Boris Yeltsin to "suspend Russia's
participation in the negotiating process, put an end to all
military-technological co-operation with the US and western Europe,
put off ratification of Start-2 and use Russia's veto as the UN
debates a resolution on Yugoslavia.
"On this," he added, "we shall find understanding from great powers
such as China and India."
The former Russian prime minister added that Nato's air war against
Yugoslavia set back Russian-US relations "by several decades". The
world, he said, had "never been so close as now to the brink of
nuclear war".
Mr Talbott, US deputy secretary of state, said in Brussels he was
"appalled" by the article, but it did not reflect the mood of his
talks with Mr Chernomyrdin in Moscow this week. Mr Talbott said: "I
disagree with everything in his article, including the punctuation
points."
Nato officials acknowledged that it was now a real possibility Russia
might pull out of the talks, but there was no sign of any let-up in
its air campaign.
William Cohen, US defence secretary, said he was confident the air
campaign would restore ethnic Albanians to their homes in Kosovo
before winter.
Nato again cut electricity supplies to an estimated 2.5m Yugoslavs on
Thursday, taking the war to ordinary civilians in what has become
almost a nightly occurrence. The alliance flew a record 800 sorties.
Reporting by John Lloyd in Moscow, Neil Buckley in Brussels and
agencies
[j_trnsp.gif] [j_trnsp.gif]
Not to be missed
[j_grey.gif] [j_grey.gif] [j_trnsp.gif]
[j_trnsp.gif] Pink Book
[j_trnsp.gif] Kosovo crisis
[j_trnsp.gif] Executive education
[j_trnsp.gif]
[j_grey.gif] [j_trnsp.gif]
Market Prices
[j_grey.gif] [j_grey.gif] [j_trnsp.gif]
[j_trnsp.gif] AT A GLANCE
[j_trnsp.gif] Key Numbers
[j_trnsp.gif] My Portfolio
[j_trnsp.gif]
[j_trnsp.gif] EQUITIES
[j_trnsp.gif] London Latest
[j_trnsp.gif] London Closing
[j_trnsp.gif] World Closing
[j_trnsp.gif] World Indices
[j_trnsp.gif]
[j_trnsp.gif] CURRENCIES
[j_trnsp.gif] Exchange Rates
[j_trnsp.gif] Pound & Dollar Spot
[j_trnsp.gif] Int. Currency Rates
[j_trnsp.gif] Money Rates
[j_trnsp.gif]
[j_trnsp.gif] MANAGED FUNDS
[j_trnsp.gif] UK & Offshore
[j_trnsp.gif]
[j_trnsp.gif] CAPITAL MARKETS
[j_trnsp.gif] Benchmark Govts
[j_trnsp.gif] Int. Bonds
[j_trnsp.gif] 10-year Spreads
[j_trnsp.gif] Emerging Mkt. Bonds
[j_trnsp.gif]
[j_trnsp.gif] EURO PRICES
[j_trnsp.gif] Euro Spot
[j_trnsp.gif] EMS Ecu Rates
[j_trnsp.gif] Euro-zone Bonds
[j_trnsp.gif]
[j_grey.gif] [j_trnsp.gif]
Philip Stephens
[j_trnsp.gif] Salute to secrecy
Samuel Brittan
[j_trnsp.gif] EU price harmony [j_trnsp.gif]
back to top [j_trnsp.gif] [j_grey.gif]
SITEMAP | About the FINANCIAL TIMES | FTEP | FT GROUP | COPYRIGHT |
HELP
[j_trnsp.gif]
search bar
keyword _________________________ Search
[j_red.gif]
[j_red.gif] [j_red.gif] [j_red.gif]
Try our new Archive where you can search from over 4m articles from
3,000 publications
IFRAME: http://banner.ft.com/html.ng/site=ftcom&parent=&cat=&pos=bban
[params.richmedia=yes&site=ftcom&parent=&cat=&pos=bban]