Russian officials refused yesterday to confirm that the wife of ousted Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was in Moscow, after Serb police demanded she return immediately to Belgrade to face questions over the murder of a top politician, writes Daniel McLaughlin, in Moscow
The Foreign Ministry here declined to comment on the whereabouts of Ms Mira Markovic, even after her daughter said that she had been in Moscow for more than a month but was not on the run from the Belgrade authorities.
Serbian police said they had warned Ms Markovic through her lawyer that she would face an international arrest warrant unless she flew home from Moscow, which is home to her son, Marko, and Mr Milosevic's brother, Borislav, Belgrade's former ambassador to Russia.
A duty officer at the embassy of Serbia and Montenegro here also refused to comment yesterday on whether Ms Markovic was in Russia, or whether they had received information from Belgrade concerning the investigation into the murder of former Serb president Mr Ivan Stambolic, whose remains were found last week.
Mr Stambolic, whose body was found in a lime pit on a mountainside in northern Serbia, vanished while jogging in Belgrade in August 2000. The Serbian Interior Ministry says he was abducted and shot twice by special forces at a time when Ms Markovic was "a person of the utmost political importance".
Ms Marija Milosevic said yesterday that her mother, who was one of Mr Milosevic's closest allies during the civil wars that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, was simply visiting her son in Russia.
"My mother left Belgrade for Moscow on February 23rd with the proper papers from the police, as she has done many times before," Ms Milosevic told Montenegro's Publika newspaper.
"She went to meet [my brother\] Marko, who lives there, and she has often flown to The Hague to visit dad. So there is no question that she is on the run."
Mr Milosevic was extradited to The Hague on war crimes charges after losing September 2000 elections, in which Mr Stambolic was considered a possible frontrunner until his disappearance.
The body of Mr Stambolic was found amid a massive manhunt for the assassins of Prime Minister Mr Zoran Djindjic. Serb investigators have arrested almost 2,000 people since the March 12th shooting, and disbanded an elite police unit which they now blame for the killing of Mr Djindic and Mr Stambolic.
