There has been considerable pleasure in Moscow at what many analysts - Western as well as Russian - see as a smart move by Russia's military: the placing of Russian soldiers at Pristina airport ahead of Nato forces.

But the whole affair seems to have set off a major row in Moscow, where Defence Ministry officials are said to be furious with their own Foreign Ministry for not fully supporting them.

Reports from Moscow suggest that there is mounting frustration in the Defence Ministry.

Russia's soldiers had, after all, just shown considerable flair and imagination and pulled off a major "coup" by placing their men at Pristina airport.

Now, however, Hungary, Bulgaria and other Balkan states have so far refused to open an air corridor for Russia to move in more troops.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov has said that Russians would only be allowed through if they were to serve in K-For "under a unified command".

Defiance unlikely

According to the Russian Interfax agency unnamed "senior defence officers" have bitterly attacked their own Foreign Ministry for not doing what it could to win an air corridor and "protect Russia's interests".

Pristina's Serbs celebrated the arrival of the Russians

It is doubtful if the Foreign Ministry could, in fact, have achieved anything in this regard.

Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary are all keen to join both Nato and the EU and their governments are unlikely to defy the West on this issue.

Western defence experts also question whether the flying of Russian reinforcements into Pristina is such a crucial question anyway.

As they see it, Russia already has what it wants: a presence in Kosovo to back up its demand for its own zone of responsibility in Kosovo, and a separate line of command for its troops there.

Dilemma

Criticism of Russia's Foreign Ministry by military leaders does not seem altogether justified.

But it is clear that the Russian military are still bitter at Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov for accepting the final peace deal in Cologne last week, a deal which accepted all of Nato's five demands.

In the long term both the defence and foreign affairs establishments in Russia are seeking the same thing: resistance to what they see as Nato attempts to minimise Russia's role in the Balkans.

But there is an increasing gulf between them on what methods are the best.

Do you defy the West, as the Defence Ministry wants to do - ignoring your own country's economic weakness and risking an ever deeper diplomatic isolation?