The first Russian peacekeepers arrived in Bosnia Tuesday under an elaborately devised plan that prevented a Russian boycott of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission.
The Russians are loosely tied into the NATO force and will be based in the sector of Bosnia to be policed by American forces. But to avoid any suggestion of their taking orders from an American, they will be under the command of their own general.Without a face-saving plan, the Russians were likely to shun the NATO operation. The Americans were interested in drawing the Russians into the peacekeeping force to defuse Kremlin criticism that Moscow was being left out in the cold.
Tuesday, a Russian aircraft flew in a small advance party of the 1,500 Russian peacekeepers to be based in the American sector in northwest Bosnia.
Most of the Russians are expected to be posted in and around the Brcko corridor linking Bosnian Serb holdings to Serbia proper - one of the problem areas whose future will be arbitrated.
The Serbs want parts of the corridor widened. The Croats and Mus-lims object to plans that would give the Serbs several towns west of the corridor.
The Russian presence in this tense Serb-held area is expected to allay tensions: Russians and Serbs share a common Slavic heritage.