- BAGHDAD - Former Russian
Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, an Arab specialist with close ties to
Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, has arrived in Baghdad, a diplomatic source
told reporters on Sunday.
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- The source refused to reveal Primakov's mission. However
in Moscow, sources in the presidential administration told Echo Moskvy
radio station that he had left on Saturday on a confidential mission on
the orders of President Vladimir Putin.
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- Russia has consistently said that the current Iraq crisis
should be resolved through diplomacy.
- In January Primakov warned that a US-led war against
Iraq could divide the international community on the basis of religion
and lead to internal rifts in many states.
- Primakov was former Soviet President mikhail Gorbachev's
envoy to the Persian Gulf during the crisis of 1990-91 after Iraqi troops
overran Kuwait.
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- His close relations with Saddam enabled him to intercede
effectively in a stand-off between Iraq and the United Nations in February
1998.
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- The 73-year-old, who started his career as a journalist
in the Middle East, is a leading authority in Russia on Arab affairs.
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- He headed the country's intelligence services in the
1990s and also served as foreign minister.
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