Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Russia not to send troops to Iraq


Regarding:
Moscow is considering a request by the Bush administration to send Russian troops to Iraq or Afghanistan this fall, just before the U.S. presidential election. The move would be of enormous benefit to U.S. President George W. Bush and a risky venture for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who faces his own Islamist insurgency in Chechnya and public opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq. Torn between his desire to support Bush and his need to address domestic concerns, Putin will delay his final decision to the eleventh hour.
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20.07.2004, 09.29
MOSCOW, July 20 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Defence Ministry has categorically dismissed the possibility of sending a Russian military contingent to Iraq at the request of the U.S. administration.

“Our stance on that issue, stated earlier, remains invariable: Russian military won’t be sent either to Iraq or to Afghanistan,” the press secretary of the Russian defence minister, Vyacheslav Sedov, told Tass on Tuesday.

Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has repeatedly stated that Moscow will under no circumstances put at risk the lives of its soldiers and officers in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has also dismissed U.S. media reports, maintaining that Moscow and Washington are engaged in negotiations on the dispatch of Russian military to Iraq in exchange for economic concessions.

The official spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, Alexander Yakovenko, said “there are no plans to send a Russian military contingent to Iraq”.