However, we are shocked at the way in which this decision was adopted in Russia. Boris Yeltsin has stubbornly kept silent; however, the President should have immediately made a corresponding declaration. But once again he preferred to adopt a position of feigned ignorance: if our peacemakers are shot in Prishtina, he will not be to blame, as he will claim that he did not know anything about this and so did not do anything... This is outrageous, as the national interests of the country require the President to assume full responsibility for radical decisions. He should have signed a corresponding decree and requested the approval of the Federation Council (Ed. the upper chamber of the Russian parliament) for such an action. Then everything would not have looked like a political show, but rather as the conscientious and consistent actions of a country, that had been undertaken in accordance with its Constitution. But in actual fact it transpired that even the Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov had not known anything about the planned action.

Nevertheless, we must now cater for our contingent there and make arrangements with NATO to allocate a corresponding sector to be controlled by Russia under the UN flag. The future status of Kosovo and the role that will be granted to the United Nations Organisation will depend on this step.