Defense Secretary William Cohen is planning to meet later this week in Helsinki, Finland, with his Russian counterpart, Marshal Igor Sergeyev, to talk over the airport problem and hammer out a role for Russian peacekeepers. That probably won't change. This won't come down to military force or even the threat of military force. NATO is not without leverage of its own. First, whatever role Russian troops may end up with in Kosovo, the Russian government is going to need financial help.
Peacekeeping is enormously expensive and Russia is broke.
It will need NATO's help to pay the bills. Second, Russian President Boris Yeltsin is scheduled to meet with President Bill Clinton at the end of the G-7 meeting in Cologne, Germany, this weekend. You have to figure Russia won't get a lot of money as long as it is sticking its thumb in NATO's eye in Kosovo. We're used to working with these guys.