12 June 2004 23:44
NATO barred Russia from Kosovo decision-making - Military
MOSCOW. June 12 (Interfax) - Russia has been deprived of the opportunity to take part in the planning of tactical
decisions on Kosovo due to the NATO leadership's position since 1999, Chairman of the State Duma defense committee
Col. Gen. Viktor Zavarzin has said.
"We had to phase out our involvement in the peacekeeping activities because the alliance's leadership did
not want to view the operation in Kosovo as a joint action of NATO and Russia," Zavarzin said in an interview with
Interfax.
Zavarzin said NATO's activity in the Balkans ran counter to
agreements that had earlier been signed between Russia and the
"Russia was categorically against this approach, which significantly limited our influence on the peacekeeping
policies in the region. We did not want to be nothing but passive executors submissively following decisions made by the
NATO military leadership," Zavarzin said.
On June 11-12, 1999, a unit of Russian paratroopers led by Zavarzin carried out a forced march across Serbia to enter
Kosovo ahead of NATO forces and occupy the strategically important Slatina airfield.
alliance.
The general said the likelihood of an armed clash between the Russian and NATO forces in Kosovo five years ago was
minimal. "Although everything is possible in a war, we still believed, based on our previous record of contacts
with the alliance, that they would not have attacked us without a decision by the NATO Council," he said.
"If a decision had been made to attack us, we would have had some time to react. We were sure that, if the
Russians had been attacked, the Serbs would have supported us. This would have prompted a ground operation, which
Brussels was really afraid of," Zavarzin said. [RU YU EUROPE ASIA EEU EMRG VIO DIP POL] va < >
[Interfax] |
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