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Russia Recognizes Elected Kostunica, Distancing Milosevic
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, on behalf of his boss Vladimir Putin on Friday congratulated Vojislav Kostunica, the man hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavs acclaimed on the streets overnight as their new leader.
But there was still no official word on the whereabouts of President Slobodan Milosevic the day after the biggest demonstration of people power in Europe in a decade.
Opposition sources have said he is in eastern Serbia but his brother, the Yugoslav ambassador to Moscow, told Reuters television on Friday he was in Belgrade and would meet Ivanov.
World leaders however were in little doubt that man who ruled Yugoslavia for 13 years was finished.
"What we witnessed yesterday was the democratic self-liberation of the Serb people," German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told reporters in Berlin.
EU officials in Brussels said a meeting of foreign ministers on Monday would likely lift a European oil embargo and flight ban, while the other two sets of sanctions on Yugoslavia -- financial sanctions and a visa ban -- would probably not be removed until later.
Russia's RIA news agency said Ivanov congratulated Kostunica on behalf of President Vladimir Putin for his victory in last month's presidential election.
The report, if confirmed, would be Russia's first official recognition of Kostunica's win in the September 24 poll over Milosevic.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright welcomed Russia's recognition of Kostunica's victory.
"The fact that the Russians have (recognised Kostunica as winner), shows that the Russians are with the Serb people, that they have recognized the democratic election," Albright told CNN monitored in London. (Source: chinadaily.com.cn)
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