Word: chernomyrdin
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...table as an option, NATO's Kosovo exit strategy now rests squarely on the diplomatic corps -- and the growing involvement of Finland's president suggests that a breakthrough on that front may be on the horizon. President Martti Ahtisaari met for two days with Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in Helsinki before Chernomyrdin left for Belgrade Wednesday and Talbott departed for NATO headquarters. Ahtisaari, an accomplished peacemaker with extensive European and U.N. credentials, has been tapped by European NATO members to represent them as a mediator, but has said...
Since then, Vice President Al Gore and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott had worked on Chernomyrdin, Clinton had spoken three times to Yeltsin, and Albright had spoken almost daily with Ivanov. When he arrived last Monday, Chernomyrdin made it clear that Russia was willing to accept, at least privately, the idea of an international security force, though not necessarily a NATO-led one. The discussions continued throughout the evening at Gore's official residence (while Albright attended a state dinner) and resumed there Tuesday morning...
When he appeared for breakfast on Tuesday, Chernomyrdin spent a few minutes chatting with Albright in Russian, one of six languages she understands, about her days in Belgrade as a child when her father was the Czechoslovak ambassador. She described meeting Tito, giving him flowers. Chernomyrdin argued that the Russians would not publicly support anything the Serbs opposed. That was absurd, she told him bluntly. The Russian role should be to push the Serbs, not merely convey their positions. The U.S. insistence on a NATO-led force was a matter not of theology but of practicality: everyone agreed the Kosovars...
...enough, the culmination of a month of nudging the Russians to call publicly for an international force as part of any solution. Each of the key allied ministers stepped up to microphones afterward to stress that NATO had to play a core role. Gore, Talbott and Albright encouraged Chernomyrdin to go to Belgrade to see if he could negotiate with Milosevic an agreement based on the G-8 statement. Russia's concurrence also opened the way for a resolution in the U.N. Security Council endorsing a security force...
...were killed and as many wounded after the alliance dropped eight cluster bombs on a village near the Kosovo city of Prizren. Images of civilian casualties function as a kind of counterweight to the refugees' tales of trauma, adding to the pressure for a diplomatic solution. Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin heads back to Belgrade next week, this time accompanied by Finland's president, Martti Ahtisaari, who is reportedly acting as an envoy for the Western powers. With talks about talks continuing, the Serbs had better brace for at least several more days of bombardment...