CAN RUSSIA AFFORD THE TROOPS?

Russian defense minister Pavel Grachev is meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of Defense William Perry in an effort to resolve the issue of whether Russian combat troops will take part in a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. Yuri Zarakhovich reports from Moscow that the main stumbling blocks involve capital, both economic and political: "Originally, Russia intended to field a division in Bosnia, but the Russian government recognizes that deploying a full division (roughly 20,000 troops) overseas will be too much of a financial strain to the impoverished Russian state. Now, they talk in terms of a couple of regiments (a few thousand), or even battalions (roughly 1,000 men)." Although the two countries have agreed that the Russians will supply up to 2,000 soldiers to carry out support functions in Bosnia, Zarakhovich notes that politically it will be much more difficult for Yeltsin to commit combat troops. "Yeltsin cannot afford placing Russian units under Western command -- not on the verge of the elections to the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, which will be held in an atmosphere of rapidly mounting and shrill anti-Western xenophobia."