Word: pristinae
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...Friday of Whiteman Air Force Base, home to the lethal B-2 bombers that emerged as the technological heroes of the war. But that evening, faces at the White House turned ashen. Commanders of Russian troops in Bosnia, evidently worried about the fate of Kosovar Serbs, had rumbled into Pristina, Kosovo's capital, despite an earlier understanding that they would not enter until agreement had been reached with NATO on command of the peacekeepers. On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov apologized and said the troops would withdraw, but as the day wore on, they stayed put, effectively in charge...
...unique role by providing for operations of Russian forces within KFOR sectors run by the United States, France and Germany." Russian troops will serve under Russian command and control but they will work with NATO commanders in those sectors. And, of course, they'll free up the runways at Pristina Airport...
Expected in some quarters to drag on through the weekend, the deal was reached before desperation set in on NATO?s side. "Moscow had been quite content to prolong the standoff," says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier. After all, by seizing Pristina's airport and spoiling NATO?s victory parade, Russia restored some of the sense of geopolitical power that had faded since the end of the Cold War. But apparently realizing that the standoff could last only so long -- Russia after all remains in economic free-fall and can't afford to step on the West?s goodwill indfinitely...
...Russia depends a lot less on the outcome of a Duma vote on economic reform than on the outcome of the Kosovo conflict." In other words, the most important Russian negotiators in the bid to get Western financial aid may be the ones in armored personnel carriers at Pristina Airport...
...reporter Dejan Anastasijevic. "Their goal is to become the sole political authority in Kosovo, which is why they?re moving in so quickly to establish a position of strength from which to negotiate with NATO." Although British troops arrested five KLA members for kidnapping and killing a Serb in Pristina Monday, shooting incidents reportedly continue and KLA units have shown little inclination to hand over their weapons to NATO...