The UN Secretary General arrived in Russia
Solve personnel issues
Kofi Annan's official four-day visit to Russia began yesterday in St. Petersburg. The main topic of his negotiations with the Russian leadership is the post-war settlement in the Balkans and the choice of a candidate for the post of head of the civil administration in Kosovo. Russia cannot lay claim to this place. But, after bargaining, he has a chance to get a number of positions in the UN administration in the Balkans.

The UN Secretary General decided to use his annual visit to Russia (according to established practice, Kofi Annan makes official visits to the most influential member states of the world organization every year) to give a keynote speech on how the UN intends to coordinate international efforts for Balkan settlement. The platform for this was the international conference “Century of Russian Initiative: from the first peace conference in 1899 to the third in 1999” that opened in St. Petersburg. (A hundred years ago, Emperor Nicholas II, having convened the Hague Peace Conference, first tried at the interstate level to agree on the reduction of armies and weapons. But the experience was unsuccessful.)
In his report, Kofi Annan sadly admitted that the tasks of the Hague Conference not only remained relevant, but had become even more urgent. The UN is going through difficult times today. Its "blue helmets" are essentially commanded by NATO.
Two years ago, during the previous visit of the UN Secretary General to St. Petersburg, Governor Vladimir Yakovlev spent a long time convincing him of the need to create the so-called green helmets - UN environmental troops and locate their training and scientific center in the city. Now Yakovlev can be satisfied: in his report, Annan stated that the only troops on the planet should be “green helmets.”
In Moscow, the UN Secretary General will also have grateful listeners: President Boris Yeltsin, Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, heads of chambers of the Russian parliament. Like the UN, Russia today is in a difficult situation; its ability to really influence the resolution of the most important issues of international life is questionable. One of the main objectives of Annan's visit is to agree on the candidacy of the head of the civil administration in Kosovo. There are several contenders on the UN list: Washington nominee Jacques Klein, the former UN representative in Bosnia, the Norwegian Kai Eide, the former head of the Irish Foreign Ministry, Dick Spring, and his also former colleague from Algeria, Lakhdar Brahimi.
London also put forward its candidate: on the eve of Annan’s flight to Russia, British Foreign Minister Robin Cook called him and lobbied for the leader of the British Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, who was leaving his post in August. But this candidacy raises objections due to the fact that the military group in Kosovo is already commanded by British General Mike Jackson.
The UN Secretary General hopes to convince Russian interlocutors to approve one of the Western candidacies. Moscow cannot count on the promotion of its candidate - the main funds for the post-war reconstruction of Yugoslavia are provided by the European Union. However, in exchange for supporting the Western candidacy, Russia has a chance to receive a certain quota in the office of the future UN chief administrator in Kosovo.

YURY Kommersant-CHUBCHENKO, SERGEY Kommersant-SLYUSARENKO, St. Petersburg

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 107 dated June 23, 1999, p. 2