Russians Lift Sanctions on Serbs

Russia informed the Security Council on Friday that it had lifted U.N.-imposed sanctions on the Bosnian Serbs, an action a U.S. spokesman called “premature,” although conditions for ending the curbs were in the process of being completed.

Russian envoy Sergei Lavrov said Bosnian Serbs had met conditions for lifting the sanctions.

James Rubin, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said the U.S. believes that the Russians were moving too early. But he called it “more of a technical than a major substantive problem.”