President Yeltsin has declared that he "will not allow" the alliance to take over Yugoslavia and turn it into a protectorate. It was not clear how Mr Yeltsin intended to put a stop to such a course of action and, in any event, NATO has not indicated that this is what it wants to do.
The statement, issued through the independent news agency, Interfax, does, however, put Mr Yeltsin back to the forefront of domestic politics, a position he had been losing to his Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov. Later, Mr Yelstin spoke by telephone to President Clinton at Mr Clinton's request. In another statement, issued after the 50-minute telephone conversation, Mr Yeltsin called for "an immediate end to NATO's bombing in Yugoslavia as a pre-condition for finding a political solution to the crisis in the Balkans".
He repeated that the return of refugees to Kosovo and the deployment of an international force in the province must be done with Yugoslavia's co-operation. Belgrade has continually refused to allow the deployment of an international force.
The White House said that during the discussion, Mr Yeltsin had pledged that Russia would not intervene militarily in the Kosovo crisis. In analysing the Russian leader's remarks, internal political wrangling cannot be ruled out but there is no doubting Russia's anger at what it regards as NATO's unilateral and illegal action in the Balkans. There was a carrot as well as a stick in Mr Yeltsin's latest remarks: according to the semi-official ITAR-TASS news agency, he said he was prepared to "mediate between the USA and Yugoslavia".
The chances of President Milosevic withdrawing his troops from Kosovo in advance of a settlement were virtually non-existent, Mr Yeltsin said.
The former prime minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, who has been appointed special envoy on Kosovo, much to the annoyance of Mr Primakov, joined in the chorus of condemnation yesterday by saying that NATO's "barbaric process" would be much more difficult to stop than it had been to start. "Unfortunately, they are only starting to understand this now," he added.
The Defence Minister, Mr Igor Sergeyev, who attended a meeting with Mr Yeltsin, Mr Chernomyrdin, Mr Primakov and the Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, in the Kremlin yesterday, said that Russian military intelligence believed an invasion of Yugoslavia by NATO ground forces was imminent. "Everything is leading to that. There is an active preparation for a ground attack," he told ITAR-TASS.
Rumours of rivalry between Mr Yeltsin and Mr Primakov were supported by a comment made by the President to the Prime Minister shown on television.
"You are not walking very well," Mr Yeltsin told his Prime Minister, referring to the back problem from which Mr Primakov is suffering. There was no message that he should "get well soon".
