MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian military experts do not have a single position regarding the necessity to withdraw Russian peacekeepers from the Balkans.
Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies, believes that the withdrawal, if effected, will mean "a new stage of Russia's geopolitical retreat."
"Moscow has given up to the United States the entire territory of the former Soviet Union. And now we are going to leave the Balkans and abandon the peacekeeping sphere in general. Russian officials say that the decision is linked to the necessity to save funds. Of course, it is necessary to save, and this statement should hardly be questioned. However Motherland's status in the hierarchy of the global community of nations is directly related to other factors outside current expenses on the peacekeeping process," Ivashov, former chief of the Defense Ministry department for international military cooperation, said in an interview with the Nezavisimaya Gazeta published on Friday.
Andrei Nikolayev, the chairman of the defense committee in the State Duma lower house of parliament, has a different opinion.
"The withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Kosovo was not sudden for the State Duma defense committee. We have been speaking about the necessity to do it for a long time. The peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo does not have a specific goal. Its presence there is not motivated by a necessity," Nikolayev told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
At the same time, actions not corresponding to the interests of the Russian Federation have been taken and are still being taken under the Russian flag, he said.
"Drug trade and prostitution are flourishing in the area controlled by the Russian peacekeeping contingent. As to the Serb population, it has effectively been deported from the territory," Nikolayev argued.