Annan was due on Monday to meet President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, newly-appointed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and officials from the two houses of the Russian parliament, ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the Kremlin as saying. Lavrov was formerly Russia’s representative to the UN. Annan’s talks with Russian officials would focus on ways of strengthening the leagl framework for peacekeeping operations carried out under a UN mandate. Russia is seeking to cement the United Nations’ role in postwar Iraq and to raise international attention to the plight of ethnic Slavs driven from their homes in the latest ethnic violence in Kosovo. The “UN international model” is organised every year in Moscow to enable potential future diplomats to learn about the way the UN works, ITAR-TASS explained.
