MOSCOW. July 21 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry is not preparing to send peacekeepers to Iraq.
"The Defense Ministry is not authorized to send peacekeepers to Iraq. This is a political matter, and only the national political administration has the authority to do this. The Defense Ministry has not been told to prepare peacekeepers to be sent to Iraq," head of the Defense Ministry press service Colonel Nikolai Deryabin told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
He commented on press reports that Russian peacekeepers, including those withdrawn from the Balkans, would soon be sent to Iraq.
Spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko said earlier that Russia may send peacekeepers to Iraq if the UN Security Council makes a decision to this effect.
"The issue requires thorough consideration," Yakovenko told a briefing in Moscow on July 18. "I believe that the time has not come for it," he said.
Yakovenko also stressed that "we do not consider any possibility of our peacekeepers' involvement in the current coalition forces in Iraq."