Moscow, May 22, (Kosovapress)

The Russian news agency, ORTI, has identified, Vitalin Gregov, a Russian Officer who has died in the Junik region of the Kosova Albania border region, and reported:

The killed Russian Captain who was serving the Yugoslav army had served in previous campaigns in Chechnia and Central Asia. ORIT adds that Gregov left the Russian Army in 1997 to join the Yugoslav army and was reportedly identified as a criminal and mentally ill by authorities in Russia.

A few days earlier, the Russian newspaper, "Moskovskaja Vrjeme," reported that more than 12,000 Russian soldiers, include high ranking officers, all graduates of the Soviet military academy have gone to Serbia. The newspaper also mentioned the accompaniment of 2000 Russian women who would serve the various needs of the troops. In a televised interview provided by ORTI, a Russian Officer who has been in Belgrade since 1997 working with the Serb army, called for his former classmates at the Soviet military academy to join him in Yugoslavia.

According to eyewitnesses inside Kosova, there are a number of these Russian officers already, many who are known to have served in earlier conflicts in Afghanistan, Chechnia, Croatia and Bosnia. Inhabitants of Kosova are afraid of these individuals for they have committed a number of crimes, including murder, rape, and the plunder of Kosovar homes. Reports suggest these Russian officers are paid between two and three thousand US dollars a month by the Serbian government to commit such crimes in Kosova.