"Brown, Dale - Warrior Class" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Dale)

funded by the United Nations, which was scheduled to become the de facto government of the semi-autonomous republic in .less than four years. No longer illegal, the Kosovo Liberation Army was more active than ever, with a force now estimated at more than fifty thousand men, equaling the size of the NATO, United Nations, and Russian peacekeeping forces combined. The KLA was supposed to have disarmed years ago, but that had never taken place-in fact, they were now reported to have heavy weapons such as antitank rockets and man-portable antiaircraft missiles, supplied by Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim nations.
The KLA advertised itself as the heart of the soon-to-be independent nation of Kosovo's self-defense force. It wasn't true in the least. The KLA was composed mainly of ethnic Albanians, mostly Muslim, and clearly did not treat all Kosovo residents alike. They hated ethnic Serbs and Orthodox Christians, but also discriminated against any foreigner and most other ethnic minorities inside Kosovo, such as gypsies, Romanians, Italians, Jews, and Greeks. Although not sanctioned by the United Nations or NATO, KLA soldiers had begun wearing uniforms and carrying weapons, touting itself as the one and only authentic native Kosovar police force.
In the meantime, Kosovo was still a province of Serbia, supposedly subject to Serbian and Yugoslavian federal law. Susic had the unfortunate task of trying to enforce the laws in a region where lawlessness was the rule rather than the exception. Prizren Airport was still operated by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a national and international airport, and it had to be secured and operated in accordance with Yugoslavian and International Civil Aeronautics Organization law. Its radar installations, power generators, communications links, satellite earth stations, warehouses, and fuel storage depots were also essential to Yugoslavian sovereignty and commerce. No one in NATO or the United Nations had offered to do any of these tasks for Yugoslavia. But the KLA was making that mission almost impossible.
The NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo was in complete shambles. NATO allies Italy and Germany still had peacekeepers in-country, but were constantly squabbling over their
role: Italy, with its eastern bases overloaded and closer to the fighting, wanted a much lower-profile presence; Germany, fearful of losing dominance over European affairs, wanted a much more active role, including stationing troops in Serbia itself. Greece and Turkey, NATO allies but longtime Mediterranean
rivals, had virtually no role in peacekeeping operations, and it was thought that was the best option. Russia also wanted to reassert its presence and authority in eastern European affairs by supporting its Slavic cousins, counterbalancing Germany's threat.
And then there was the United States of America, the biggest question mark of all. What would the new president do? He was such an enigma that few analysts, American or foreign, could hazard a guess. The United States had twice as many peacekeepers stationed in or around Kosovo as all the other participants combined, easily outgunning both Germany and Russia. But this relegated them to the role of baby-sitter or referee. The Americans seemed less concerned with keeping peace in Kosovo than with reducing hostilities between European powers.
"This new president is either a nut or a coward," Susic added. The television on the all-news channel showed thousands of people outside the American Capitol milling around, as if undecided about what they should do. "Look at themstanding around with their thumbs up their asses, because their New Age retro-hippie president is back hiding in the safety of the White House." Other remote camera shots showed presidential advisors-not yet Cabinet members, because the United States Senate had not confirmed them-arriving at the White House to confer with the President. "How embarrassing. Do you not think so, Comrade Colonel?"
"Do not underestimate this man, Captain," Colonel Gregor Kazakov said, draining his up of brandy, which Susic immediately refilled. "He has the strength of his convictions-he is not a political animal like the others. Never confuse a softspoken nature with weakness."
Susic nodded thoughtfully. If Kazakov thought so ... Kazakov was a great soldier, an extraordinarily brave and resourceful warrior. Gregor Kazakov was the commander of the








Russian Federation's four-thousand-man Kosovo peacekeeping mission, charged with trying to maintain order in the Russian sector of this explosive Yugoslavian republic.
He was a hero to Susic because he had exhibited something relatively rare and unusual in a Russian military officer-initiative. It was Gregor Kazakov, then just a major, who, in June of 1999, upon secret orders from Moscow, had taken elements of his famed 331 Airborne battalion in two Antonov-12 transports low-level at night through the dark, forbiddi ng Bosnian highlands, and then parachuted 120 elite Russian commandos, two armored personnel carriers, man-portable antiaircraft weapons, and a few days' worth of ammunition and supplies onto Pristina Airport, thus yanking away the key position in Kosovo right out from under NATO's confused, uncoordinated noses. The Russian paratroopers had captured the airport with complete surprise and no resistance. The entire operation, from tasking order to last man on the drop zone, had taken less than twelve hours-again, amazingly fast and efficient for any Russian military maneuver. A small company of British paratroopers, sent in as an advance team to set up for incoming NATO supply flights, had been politely but firmly rolled out of bed by their Russian counterparts and ordered to evacuate the airport.
NATO had E-3 Airborne Warning and Control radar planes above Bosnia, Albania, and Macedonia monitoring air traffic over the entire region, and at one point two U.S. Navy F- 14 Tomcats from an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea had been vectored in on them, intercepting them shortly after they'd lifted off from the Russian air base in Bosnia. The F-14s had warned the planes to turn back, and even locked onto them with their missile-guidance radars, threatening to fire if they didn't reverse course. But Kazakov had ordered the An- 12 pilots to continue, and the Americans had eventually backed off without even firing a warning shot. The move had surprised the entire world and briefly touched off fears of NATO retaliation. Instead, Russia had gained in hours what weeks of negotiation had failed to achieve-a role in the peacekeeping efforts inside Kosovo. NATO had not only blinked at Kazakov's audacitythey'd stepped aside.
Of course, if NATO had wanted to take Pristina Airfield
back, they could have done so with ease-Kazakov himself would have readily admitted that. Kazakov's troops, although elite soldiers and highly motivated,
were very poorly equipped, and training was substandard at best. Peacekeeping duty in Bosnia had the lowest funding priority, but the government wanted mobile, elite commandos in place to assure dominance, so Kazakov's men were woefully unprepared. The assault on Pristina Airport had been the first jump most of the men had made in several weeks, because there was very little jet fuel available for training flights; everything from bullets to bombs to boots was in short supply. But the surprise factor had left the Americans, British, French, and German peacekeepers frozen in shock. One hour, the place was nearly deserted; the next hour, a couple hundred Russian paratroopers were setting up shop.
The mission's success had sent a surge of patriotic, nationalistic joy throughout Russia. Kazakov had received a promotion to full colonel and the People's Meritorious Service medal for his audacity and warrior spirit. In the end, the event had marked the beginning of the end of the Yeltsin administration, since it was obvious Yeltsin either had not sanctioned the plan, fearing reprisals from the West, or, more likely, had known nothing about it in the first place. Less than a year later, Yeltsin had resigned, his Social Democratic Party was out, and Valentin Sen'kov and the new Russia-All Fatherland Party, not communist but decidedly nationalistic and anti-West, had surged into the Kremlin and Duma in large numbers.
Kazakov could have been elected premier of Russia if he'd wanted to get into Russian politics-no doubt a much tougher assignment than any other he had ever held. But he was a soldier and commander, and wanted nothing more than to lead Russian soldiers. He'd requested and been authorized to command the Russian presence in all of Yugoslavia, and had chosen to set up his headquarters right in NATO's face, squarely in the middle of the homet's nest that was Kosovo--Prizren, in southern Kosovo, the largest and most dangerous multinational brigade sector. Kazakov commanded two full mechanized infantry battalions, four thousand soldiers, there. He also com-








manded an eight-hundred-man Tactical Group, composed of a fast helicopter assault force, in the Kosovo Multi-National Brigade-East headquarters at Gnjilane, and was an advisor to the Ukrainian Army's three-hundred-man contingent there as well.
Now the troops had been in place for almost two years, with only minimal-duty out-rotations, so the men were slack, poorly trained, and poorly motivated. All they received here in Kosovo were constant threats from ethnic Albanian civilians and Kosovo Liberation Army forces-most of whom roamed the streets almost at will, with very little interference from NATO-and increasing cutbacks and inattention from home. The new president of Russia, ex-Communist, ex-KGB officer, and ex-prime president Valentin Sen'kov, promised more money and more prestige for the Russian military, and he was beginning to deliver. But no one, not even President Sen'kov, could squeeze blood from a turnip. There was simply no additional money to invest for the Russian Federation's huge military.
"The question is," Susic said, gulping down more brandy, will Thorn continue the American buildup in Kosovo and continue to support revolutionaries, saboteurs, and terrorists in Albania, Montenegro, and Macedonia, like his predecessor? Or will he stop this maddening scheme to break up Yugoslavia and let us fight our own battles?"
"It is hard to tell with this president," Kazakov said. "He is a military man, that much I know-an army lieutenant in Desert Storm, I believe. He is credited with leading a team of commandos hundreds of miles into Iraq, even into Baghdad itself, and lazing targets for precision-guided bombers."
"That mealymouthed worm was a commando?" Susic asked incredulously. He hadn't paid much attention to the American political campaign. "He would not be qualified to shine your boots, let alone be called a commando, like yourself."
'61f it was a lie, I believe the American press would have exposed him in very short order-instead, they verified it," Kazakov said. "I told you, Captain, do not underestimate him. He knows what it's like to be a warrior, with a rifle in your
hands sneaking into position, with your enemies all around you in the darkness. His outward demeanor may be different from other American presidents', but they are all pushed and pulled by so many political forces. They can be quite
unpredictable."