By Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON -- Relations between NATO and Russia, strained
during Operation Allied Force, have since improved,
according to U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark.

"Some of the sting has been taken out of the effects of the
air campaign," Clark said.

NATO's supreme allied commander Europe said the Russians
have returned to liaison teams at SHAPE headquarters in
Mons, Belgium. NATO-Russian consultations also have resumed
at NATO's Permanent Joint Council and at the military
representative and ambassadorial levels in Brussels, he
said.

"I hope that we can build on this dialogue at all levels
and maintain the very effective and cordial relationships
that the soldiers on the ground have established," Clark
said.

Relations are strong between NATO and Russian troops on the
ground in Bosnia and Kosovo, Clark noted. "The
relationships, soldier to soldier, unit to unit, are very
good," he said. "There's effective teamwork and we've been
impressed by the professionalism of the Russian soldiers."

While relations are warming on one front, they're getting a
bit chilly regarding Russian military action in Chechnya, a
breakaway Russian province in the Caucasus. European
leaders say Russia must halt its offensive against Chechnya
or face possible economic sanctions.

President Clinton addressed the issue at a meeting of the
Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe in
Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 18. "I think I speak for everyone
here when we say we want Russia to overcome the scourge of
terrorism and lawlessness. We believe Russia has not only
the right, but the obligation, to defend its territorial
integrity. We want to see Russia a stable, prosperous,
strong democracy with secure borders, strong defenses, and
a leading voice in world affairs."

Clinton said most critics of the Russian policies "deplore
Chechen violence and terrorism and extremism and they
support the objectives of Russia -- to preserve its
territorial integrity, and to put down the violence and the
terrorism.

"What they fear is that the means Russia has chosen will
undermine its ends -- that if attacks on civilians
continue, the extremism Russia is trying to combat will
only intensify, and the sovereignty Russia rightly is
defending will be more and more rejected by ordinary
Chechens who are not part of the terror or the resistance,"
he said.

Russian claims that their military action against Chechnya
is nothing more than what NATO did in Kosovo are wrong,
Clark told Pentagon reporters. "I think they're doing in
Chechnya what Milosevic tried to do in Kosovo," he
declared.

NATO leaders put pilots at greater risk and inhibited the
use of air power to prevent collateral damage during
Operation Allied Force, Clark said. The Russians, on the
other hand, with their unrestricted use of firepower and
apparent actions against civilian targets in Chechnya,
aren't displaying similar inhibitions, he noted.

"In fact, I see the opposite in the case of the Russian
threats that have been given against these urban areas, in
the use of their weapons, and in the way they have
generally followed (through) in the campaign."

Asked how NATO allies will cope with future regional
crisis, Clark pointed out that European nations are
determined to pick up a greater share of the defense
burden. He said NATO's Defense Capabilities Initiative is
focused on 58 areas where allied forces must improve their
capabilities to meet the requirements of the NATO Strategic
Concept approved at the Washington Summit in April 1999.

"I think if we follow through on this DCI program to
improve capabilities, we'll have the kind of rapid reaction
force capabilities that are required," the commander
concluded.