President Medvedev Of Russia To Send Envoy To Libya

Mikhail Margelov

A Russian presidential envoy for Africa, Mikhail Margelov, said he would go to Libya's Benghazi on June 6 for talks with the Libyan opposition.

At a Group of Eight (G8) meeting in France last week, President Dmitry Medvedev said he expected Margelov, who also heads the foreign relations committee of the Russian upper house, to meet both with the Libyan opposition and authorities during his visit.

"We value relations with Libya and the Libyan people," Margelov said. "The Russian president firmly supports sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Libya."

Speaking after the G8 summit of seven European countries and Russia in Deauville on May 27, Medvedev said Muammar Gaddafi's regime had lost its legitimacy and the Libyan leader must leave his post.

Medvedev said Russia would not grant asylum to Gaddafi adding that the international community no longer considered him the Libyan leader.

The revolt which began in mid-February in Libya against Gaddafi's forty-year rule has already claimed thousands of lives, with Gaddafi's troops maintaining their combat capabilities despite NATO airstrikes against them.

As reported earlier Kremlin was approached by UK and USA to mediate for them in the Libyan crisis.

President Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman said on 26th of May."In every bilateral meeting such a request was heard," press secretary Natalia Timakova told journalists after Medvedev had bilateral talks with U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Deauville, France.
"In the bilateral meetings, everyone thanked the president for his constructive position on Libya. More than that, in practically all the discussions it was requested that Russia undertake a mediation mission for a settlement in Libya," she added.