Armored Russian troops rolled across Yugoslavia into Kosovo yesterday, stunning the West and seizing powerful leverage in a battle of wills over who will keep the peace in the war-ravaged province.
At one point an elite unit of 2,000 British paratroopers and riflemen in Macedonia was put on “immediate alert” to rush to Kosovo’s capital in helicopters if the arrival of Russian troops there seemed imminent.
Early today the Russians arrived in armored personnel carriers in Pristina – greeted by thousands of jubilant Serbs, cheering “Brother Russians!”
NATO troops had been sitting all day on Kosovo’s borders waiting to enter when about 200 Russian troops in Bosnia crossed into Yugoslavia at midday with hastily painted insignia – KFOR – of the multinational peacekeeping force.
The Russian role in KFOR was never resolved in negotiations leading to the end of the NATO bombing campaign.
It was not clear last night who would command the Russian forces – and whether their presence would lead to a military confrontation .
The Russian move surprised Western officials, who feared Russian occupation of Pristina would lead to a hostile partitioning of Kosovo.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ordered State Department envoy Strobe Talbott to fly back to Moscow – he was on his way to NATO headquarters in Brussels – for an emergency meeting with his Russian counterparts.
There was no immediate Western response to the Russian arrival in Pristina.
The first full day after the end of the air war, which began March 24, wasn’t all rocky.
“The Serbs are moving along quite nicely with their withdrawal,” said Col. Dick Bridges, a Pentagon spokesman.
The sticky issue of Russia’s role in Kosovo wasn’t addressed in the peace deal or in the United Nations resolution authorizing NATO to move into Kosovo – and U.S. officials said at the time it would probably be settled on the ground.