Russia does not like the idea of tribunal for former Yugoslavia leaders

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has spoken in favour of stopping the operation of the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. "We believe that today the need for the tribunal's operations has disappeared altogether," he said to journalists. Russia "believes that in the framework of corresponding UN institutions, the Security Council in particular, it is necessary to raise the question of making a decision on the future of the tribunal." "We are sure that in this way we would promote the stabilisation of the situation in Yugoslavia and in the Balkans as a whole," Ivanov said. "The tribunal was formed at a time when Bosnia and the Balkans were in a state of war, when there were no democratic institutions or institutions of justice," he said. "Today this is passing down into history. Today Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Yugoslavia have democratic leaders," Ivanov said, Interfax reports. "Meanwhile, the operations of the international tribunal can only arouse mistrust in those or other government bodies and add complicating elements to the solution of other questions that are on the agenda, for instance in Yugoslavia," he said.