MOSCOW -- President Boris Yeltsin said Thursday that Russia has decided not to use force to counter NATO attacks against Yugoslavia and will continue its efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Kosovo conflict.
"Russia has a number of extreme measures in store, but we decided not to use them so far," Yeltsin said after meeting with his top ministers at the Kremlin. "Morally we are above America."Instead, Moscow called for an urgent U.N. Security Council vote Thursday to stop NATO attacks. A Russian call for a council meeting on Wednesday failed to halt the bombings.
Several hundred people demanding an end to the attacks protested Thursday outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg, hurling bottles, eggs and other objects. Police detained several protesters in brief scuffles outside the Moscow embassy.
"We would have liked to use grenades, but all we had were eggs," said protester Denis Yasov in St. Petersburg.
When the attacks began Wednesday, Yeltsin said Russia was halting cooperation with NATO and pulling out of the alliance's Partnership for Peace, a program designed to promote military and political cooperation between the West and former Soviet bloc countries.
Yeltsin had initially ordered the recall of Russia's chief military envoy to NATO, Lt. Gen. Viktor Zavarzin, and the closure of Russia's offices at NATO headquarters in Belgium.
But after its initial harsh reaction to the bombings, Moscow appeared to be backing away from confrontation with the United States and its NATO allies. The ITAR-Tass news agency reported Thursday that Russia would keep its mission at NATO headquarters in Brussels open and apparently would continue to take part in other alliance programs.
Despite its staunch support for Yugoslavia, Russia's options are limited. It is no longer a major military power, and it desperately wants Western aid to revive its shattered economy.
The IMF chief was due in Moscow on Saturday for loan talks, Primakov's spokeswoman, Tatyana Aristarkhova, said Thursday.
Russian newspapers expressed broad sympathy for Yugoslavia Thursday but said Moscow is too weak to challenge the West and can do nothing except protest loudly.
Some papers assailed Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov for his decision to abruptly cancel his trip to Washington to seek new loans from the International Monetary Fund when he heard that NATO attacks were imminent.
"It's much easier to brandish rusty weapons and assail Americans than properly hold talks with the IMF," the daily Segodnya said.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Moscow was not considering giving Yugoslavia any military help, according to the Interfax news agency. "There is no talk about using force in response to force," he said.
Some officials had suggested Moscow might provide aid to Yugoslavia. Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin hinted that Moscow could break an international arms embargo against Belgrade.
But Stepashin also played down the situation, saying Russia had to maintain good relations with Europe. "We must not find ourselves face to face against all of Europe, which unfortunately happened during the Cold War," he said.