The vehement opposition by the governments of Russia and Belarus to NATO's air campaign in Yugoslavia has placed them in a small group of countries within Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union that tend to support Belgrade over NATO in the Kosova crisis.

Though the three newest members of NATO--the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland--obviously back the alliance's actions in Yugoslavia, absolute support has not been forthcoming in every case.

The weakest link for NATO has been in Prague. Though Czech President Vaclav Havel has spoken strongly in support of the air strikes, the governing Social Democrats (CSSD) have made only lukewarm statements in favor of NATO's actions. Additionally, on 10 April 341 delegates at a CSSD conference in Prague signed a letter condemning the NATO air campaign. Among conservatives, parliament speaker and former Premier Vaclav Klaus said on 8 April that the air strikes "were not the right policy," and that since the bombing began "the suffering in Kosova has increased manifold." The rival Freedom Union party called for Klaus to be dismissed as speaker for "severely damaging the Czech Republic's credibility and prestige within NATO."

Hungary, the only NATO country that shares a border with Yugoslavia, has solidly endorsed NATO action. So much so, in fact, that one ethnic Hungarian leader in Serbia's Vojvodina region said Budapest's "extreme" support for the air strikes could have negative consequences for ethnic Hungarians there. Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban even spoke favorably of NATO's bombing of the bridges spanning the Danube River in Novi Sad, despite the fact that Hungarian companies will suffer substantial economic losses as a result of the stoppage in shipping traffic the bridge debris has caused. (Orban reasons that destruction of the bridge will help prevent Yugoslav troops stationed in Vojvodina, which includes many ethnic Hungarians, from being transferred to Kosova.)

In Warsaw, official backing for the air campaign has been solid, and only a small group of pacifist Catholic deputies and the Peasant Party have spoken against the NATO operation. Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek gave an impassioned speech to parliament in support of air strikes on 9 April, and former President Lech Walesa even called for the alliance to send in ground troops.

Perhaps even more vocal than the fledgling NATO members in their support for military action against Yugoslavia are the seven countries striving to be part of the next wave of NATO expansion: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuanian, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. These countries sent a joint letter to U.S. President Bill Clinton on 9 April expressing their full support for action necessary to end "...the suffering and violence in Kosova."

In Bratislava, Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda called the decision to bomb Yugoslavia the lesser "of two evils." But the party of former Premier Vladimir Meciar called the air strikes "modern barbarism" in parliament on 25 March and declared its "solidarity" with Yugoslavia.

In Bulgaria and Romania, government backing for NATO's actions faces harsh criticism from the major opposition parties--criticism that resonates somewhat within the public, who are uncomfortable with the close proximity of the military operations and who feel for the ethnic Romanian and ethnic Bulgarian minorities living in Serbia. Though the government of Bulgarian Premier Ivan Kostov supported the strikes, it was criticized in some Western circles for closing its borders to all Yugoslav refugees except ethnic Bulgarians. Romania and Bulgaria also stand to lose millions of dollars from the shutdown in shipping on the Danube, something the threadbare economies of those countries can ill afford.

The Moldovan Foreign Ministry said on 25 March that it notes that the Atlantic alliance's decision to use force was "to a large extent imposed by the irreconcilable position" of one side in the conflict, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported.

Croatian officials, whose country has not yet been accepted into NATO's Partnership for Peace program, have publicly supported NATO. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, pledges of official support for either Yugoslavia or NATO fall largely, predictably, along ethnic lines. Leaders in both countries no doubt feel a touch of schadenfreude that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is enduring the kind of destruction that other former Yugoslav republics experienced during the 1991- 1995 wars of Yugoslav succession.

In Kyiv, government officials have mixed condemnations of NATO air strikes, with calls for resumed negotiations. The Defense Ministry also maintained that "strong relations with NATO are within Ukraine's interests." And despite virulent statements by deputies against NATO, resolutions reducing ties with NATO as well as one calling for Ukraine to renege on its nuclear-free status have failed to pass a largely leftist parliament. President Leonid Kuchma has also turned down all calls for military aid to be sent to Belgrade and called Yugoslavia's proposal to join the Belarusian-Russian Union "unrealistic."

In the Caucasus, both Armenia and Georgia expressed disappointment at the failure of negotiations to solve the conflict and concern at the decision by the alliance to use force against Yugoslavia. Most political groups in Yerevan spoke against the air strikes, though the Foreign Ministry said on 25 March that "Armenia has always stood up for the right of peoples to self-determination." Though on the same day, its defense minister signed a CIS joint statement in Moscow calling the NATO air strikes "inhuman." Meanwhile, the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party praised NATO actions against Yugoslavia "...which has committed genocide against Albanians." It said that "the same policy of ethnic cleansing has been carried out against Azerbaijanis living in...Nagorno-Karabakh" and was hopeful that "such [NATO] action will be carried out against Armenia..."

The Central Asian states have been relatively quiet and ever cautious in their official statements regarding the Kosova conflict. Kazakhstan neither endorsed nor condemned the air strikes but did call for Yugoslav forces to withdraw from Kosova. The Tajik Foreign Ministry condemned the air campaign as "destabilizing the global situation."

So while Belgrade knows it has little support in the West, unequivocal support in the East is also rare. Though in a global sense, Yugoslavia appears to be doing alright: Yugoslav Deputy Foreign Minister Zoran Novakovic pointed out on 9 April that Russia, China, and India oppose the NATO military campaign, and those countries "account for a majority of the world's population," he said.

KUCHMA SAYS BELARUS-RUSSIA-YUGOSLAVIA UNION UNREALISTIC. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said on 10 April in Odessa that a proposal by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for Belgrade to join the Belarusian-Russian Union is unrealistic. He added that Milosevic's request can be regarded as a "political measure for settling the Kosova crisis," Interfax reported. The previous day, Kuchma said Ukraine will not be drawn into the military conflict in the Balkans. "It is enough for Ukraine to have 12,000 boys killed in Afghanistan," he added. JM

PUSTOVOYTENKO PUNISHES TAX INSPECTORS FOR POOR PERFORMANCE. Ukrainian Prime Minister Valeriy Pustovoytenko on 9 April ordered a cut in the salaries of tax inspectors after he was told they had failed to meet their tax collection target this year, AP reported. Finance Minister Ihor Mityukov reported that the state collected 3.4 billion hryvni ($865 million) in revenues in the first three months of 1999, or 82 percent of the target. The overall tax debt to the government has risen to 13.9 billion hryvni. JM

UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT TO INVESTIGATE CHORNOVIL'S DEATH. The Supreme Council on 9 April set up a commission to investigate the death of Vyacheslav Chornovil, leader of the Popular Rukh of Ukraine and a former Soviet political prisoner and dissident (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 March 1999). Both parliamentary caucuses of the internally divided Rukh have demanded that Chornovil's death in a car crash be investigated, even though Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko has said the crash was accidental. JM

RUSSIAN CONVOY TO YUGOSLAVIA BLOCKED AT HUNGARIAN BORDER. A convoy of 73 trucks carrying "humanitarian aid" to Yugoslavia from Russia and Belarus was held up at the Ukrainian-Hungarian border on 10 April, after custom officials found that some of the vehicles and their cargo violate the UN embargo against Yugoslavia, Hungarian media reported. The officials said that five lorries had armored cabins equipped with embrasures, while eight other were carrying nearly 57 tons of fuel. Foreign Ministry spokesman Gabor Horvath said that if the Russians withdraw these parts, the convoy can move on. Russian Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Budapest on 12 April. Before leaving Moscow, he said that Budapest was breaking international agreements by stopping the convoy and that President Boris Yeltsin and the government were "extremely disturbed by Hungary's position." Yeltsin and Premier Yevgenii Primakov on 12 April discussed the blocking of the convoy, ITAR-TASS reported. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that "if there is not a solution in the coming hours, it will have the most serious results for Russian-Hungarian relations," Reuters reported. MSZ/MS

NEW DATE SET FOR SUMMIT ON TRANSDNIESTER. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on 10 April announced that the summit on resolving the Transdniester conflict, which was postponed due to Russian Premier Yevgenii Primakov's illness last week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 April 1999), will be held on 29-30 April, Romanian radio reported citing ITAR-TASS. On 9 April, Grigorii Marakutsa, chairman of the separatist region's Supreme Soviet, met in Chisinau with Moldovan parliament chairman Dumitru Diacov, discussing the settlement of the conflict and energy deliveries from the Transdniester to Moldova. Marakutsa said after the talks that the proposals advanced by the OSCE and the mediators are "unacceptable" to the Transdniester side and "other alternatives will probably be examined in Kyiv and Odessa," RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Romania renewed electricity supplies after receiving assurances from Moldovan Premier Ion Sturza that Chisinau's debt will be paid "within the shortest possible time." MS

Though the three newest members of NATO--the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland--obviously back the alliance's actions in Yugoslavia, absolute support has not been forthcoming in every case.

In the Caucasus, both Armenia and Georgia expressed disappointment at the failure of negotiations to solve the conflict and concern at the decision by the alliance to use force against Yugoslavia. Most political groups in Yerevan spoke against the air strikes, though the Foreign Ministry said on 25 March that "Armenia has always stood up for the right of peoples to selfdetermination." Though on the same day, its defense
minister signed a CIS joint statement in Moscow calling the NATO air strikes "inhuman." Meanwhile, the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party praised NATO actions against Yugoslavia "...which has committed genocide against Albanians." It said that "the same policy of ethnic cleansing has been carried out against Azerbaijanis living in...Nagorno-Karabakh" and was hopeful that "such [NATO] action will be carried out against Armenia..."