RUSSIA: THE GUEST NOBODY INVITED TO KOSOVO

No one invited Russia to the war in Kosovo. So Russian troops have crashed the party by taking up positions inside the bomb-wracked province just as NATO forces are stepping in to maintain the peace after the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops. Right now, Moscow's troops hold the airport in Kosovo's capital.

The invasion by the Russians has produced some perplexing problems for the NATO allies. Perhaps invasion is too strong a word. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a word for a military presence established by a nation whose allegiance lies more with the defeated Yugoslav leadership than with the military commanders of NATO.

Russia insists that it is entitled to a role in the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. But Russia isn't a NATO member. Nor will it consent to having its uninvited troops submit to NATO command. Meanwhile, the United States has taken the position that under no circumstances will the Russian troops be permitted to stay in Kosovo under their own command.

Does any of this sound familiar?

When President Clinton gave the nod to start the bombing of Kosovo, there were loud murmurs about placing U.S. troops under NATO command. As anyone knows, while the bombing operation was officially called a NATO operation -- and it did involved other NATO forces -- the Kosovo war was a U.S. action through and through. Without the United States, there would have been no NATO operation. Indeed, this country's diplomats had to work hard to get their NATO partners to go along.

Through it all, Russia made noises and stomped its feet just to make sure no one forgot about it. Questions abound over whether any Russian efforts were useful in getting Slobodan Milosevic to agree to withdraw his forces or whether he was being egged on by his allies in Moscow.

Now Russia may be using its party-crashing status as a bargaining chip. Is it so farfetched to think Russia won't try to capitalize on the Clinton administration's reluctance to get its hands dirty when it gets into a fight?