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Morning News

Yugoslav Revolt: Russian President Sends Congratulations to Opposition Leader Vojislav Kostunica

Aired October 6, 2000 - 9:00 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to start with that revolution and with world news with the sweeping revolt in Yugoslavia. By most accounts, President Slobodan Milosevic's reign is now over. It was at this very hour yesterday that the opposition rally escalated into a pro-democracy revolution. Serb civilians stormed parliament building, determined to chase Milosevic out of office. As their massive protest grew, it turned into a huge street party.

For the latest, we want to bring in our Alessio Vinci, who is standing by in Belgrade -- Alessio.

ALESSIO VINCI, BELGRADE BUREAU CHIEF: Daryn, what a difference a day makes. Twenty-four hours ago, thousands of people were storming the federal parliament in downtown Belgrade, braving policemen and braving the tear gases. Twenty-four hours later, hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps more than 200,000 people are gathered again in front of that same building. They are dancing. They are chanting. Today for them it is a day for celebration.

Instead of violence in front of that parliament building, as you can see from those pictures, people dancing, people celebrating what they call the liberation of Yugoslavia. Indeed, a revolution here, which lasted a little more than 24 hours ago. It began yesterday with the storming of the federal parliament. It continues throughout the night with celebrations here in downtown Belgrade and, for that matter, throughout other towns across Yugoslavia.

And then, this morning, the arrival here of Yugoslav -- of Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who met first with the Yugoslav foreign minister and then went to meet Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition leader. The meeting lasted a couple of hours. At the end of that meeting both Ivanov and Kostunica came out and spoke to reporters. And Mr. Ivanov told reporters that he was bringing a message from the Russian President Vladimir Putin, congratulating Vojislav Kostunica for winning the presidential elections, of being the new president-elect of Yugoslavia.

That was a dramatic shift in Russia's position, which, for several weeks now, had refrained from calling on President Milosevic to step down. As that news broke here that Russia was recognizing Kostunica as the president-elect, and more people even gathered here in the downtown Belgrade. We also know that Ivanov then went on meeting with army leadership here with at least Mr. Pakovich (ph), the general chief of staff here in Belgrade. We don't know if at that meeting President Milosevic was also there. We know that that meeting took place in that same residence on Ujizca (ph) where that NATO bomb, over the last year during the bombing campaign. We don't know if Milosevic was there. We don't know if any kind of deal was cut there, if any kind of solution, or political solution, for President Milosevic was discussed. We know that Mr. Ivanov, now, the Russian foreign minister, is meeting with the Serb patriarch leader, patriarch Viav Pavlev (ph). And, at this point, we cannot really tell you if anything Russia is offering for President Milosevic as a way out of his current presidential position.

The other next step is for the opposition here to convene the federal parliament. They need a quorum, of course, and, in order to achieve that quorum, they need to get on board the deputies from Montenegro. That will probably happen either today, but we understand that from opposition sources, that that meeting may now take place tomorrow, because they need those Montenegrin representatives to travel to Belgrade in order to then call for a full session of both houses of the federal parliament.

Back to you.

KAGAN: Alessio, once all of the celebrating is done with and the new government would be in place, how is life likely to change for the average person in Yugoslavia?

VINCI: Well, first of all, as soon as President Kostunica, President-Elect Kostunica, will take over, the European Union and the United States have already announced that they are going to lift the sanctions. So, I think that the changes will take really quickly, because we are going to start seeing hundreds of billions of dollars coming into this country, really rapidly. And we are going to see fast beginning of reconstruction. This is an economy that was completely isolated for an entire decade. Yugoslavia has been under international sanctions and international isolation for several years now. And, certainly, the lifting of the sanctions will be first dramatic impact that the people will feel here.

Also, probably, there is going to be less restrictions to travel around, less restrictions for people from this country to travel out and also for people from abroad -- from abroad to come here. So, certainly, we are going to see a lot more people communicating among each other. It's going to be a dramatic change, which, I think, will take a long time to get some evidence of that change, but it will start really quickly.

KAGAN: Alessio Vinci in Belgrade.

Thank you, Alessio.

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