Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Friday, 20 Nov 1992 14:35:04 CST
From: <U15231@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna,soc.culture.europe,soc.culture.usa
Subject: Milosevic meets Russian deputies in apparent tie-seeking move

From: clarinews@clarinet.com (NESHO DJRURIC)


Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:22:16 PST

        BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Communist President Slobodan Milosevic
of Serbia met Friday with a delegation of Marxist deputies from the
Russian Parliament in the latest sign of an ongoing effort to develop
close ties with opponents of Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
        Milosevic and the Russian deputies held ``cordial talks...on the
further strengthening of relations and cooperation between the Serbian
and Russian peoples and their institutions,'' said a statement issued by
the presidential office.
        According to the statement, the Russians criticized the May 30
imposition of U.N. economic sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro for
backing the Serbian territorial seizures in neighboring Bosnia-
Herzegovina.
        ``The sanctions against Yugoslavia are a tragic mistake by the United
Nations...with which the Russian people do not agree,'' the statement
quoted the Russian delegates as saying.
        The Yeltsin government, however, voted for the sanctions, which have
left Serbia and Montenegro in international isolation. It also supported
a resolution approved Monday designed to strengthen them.
        In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky
said, ``Russia continues to follow a balance with regards to a
settlement in Yugoslavia and also with respect to other parties in the
Yugoslav conflict. Therefore, I don't think we should be talking about
any change of course.''
        The parliamentary deputies were only the latest Russian opponents of
Yeltsin welcomed by Serbia in recent weeks, suggesting to analysts and
diplomats that Milosevic is seeking to forge strong ties to various
anti-government factions in Moscow in the hope that they might some day
come to power.
        Ultra-nationalists of both nations have expressed a vision of forming
an alliance based on historic ties and common Christian Orthodox faith.
        All of the Russian visitors have received top billing on state-run
Belgrade television in what appears to be a pre-election Milosevic
propaganda attempt to convince Serbs that the U.N. sanctions have not
left the country isolated.
        On Tuesday, Milosevic was shown on television meeting a group of
Russian poets and artists. Last month, he met Eduard Savenko-Limonov, an
author and senior member of the Patriotic Front, which shares with
Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia a philosophy combining communism
and ultra-nationalism.
        Maj. Gen. Victor Filatov, a retired Russian officer, arrived earlier
this month and announced that he would organize volunteers from Russia
to fight alongside Serbian forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        Belgrade television provided prominent coverage to Filatov's tour of
Serbian front lines in the war-torn former Yugoslav republic and a
meeting he held with Vojislav Seselj, the head of an ultra-nationalist
Serbian paramilitary group accused by international human rights
investigators of committing atrocities against non-Serbs in Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        During their one-week private stay in rump Yugoslavia, the Russian
parliamentarians are scheduled to tour towns in Serbia and Montenegro,
hold talks with government officials and Serbian Orthodox Church
dignitaries and tour monasteries and factories.