RUSSIA THREATENS TO BOYCOTT GENEVA MEETING

RUSSIA THREATENS TO BOYCOTT GENEVA MEETING

… Moscow and Washington sparred over the weekend following a Russian announcement March 15 that Moscow would boycott a meeting today in Geneva aimed at sustaining the Bosnia peace process. Diplomats said that Russia was angry over the possibility that the Geneva talks, hastily arranged by Washington, would upstage a meeting of the Contact Group scheduled for March 23 in Moscow. The Russian government had long sought to host such a meeting, and perceived the talks in Geneva as yet another attempt to marginalize it as a player in world affairs. U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher telephoned Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov over the weekend with assurances that the Geneva talks would be "supportive" of the Moscow meeting and to convince him to attend. But a State Department spokesman declared that the Geneva talks would take place whether or not Moscow was represented. (UPI & Reuter, March 16 & 17)

…As Russia’s Bosnia Forces Under Fire…at Home.