Vitaly Churkin, President Boris Yeltsin's special envoy to the former Yugoslavia, is being moved to Brussels to take up the post of ambassador to Belgium, NATO and the Western European Union, apparently at his own request.


Churkin, who holds the rank of deputy foreign minister, will move to Brussels in November, his aide, Andrei Kruskov, said Monday.


"He wanted it himself," Kruskov said by telephone. "He hasn't had a post abroad for a long time."


Churkin served for five years at the Soviet embassy in Washington in the 1980s, before being appointed spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, but attracted international attention for his efforts as a peace broker in Bosnia.


Appealing to Serbs as a traditional ally of Russia, Churkin convinced them to lift their siege of Sarajevo in February, averting major NATO air strikes. He also negotiated a cease-fire between Croats and Serbs in Croatia.


Over the past year, Russia has played an increasingly important part in international efforts to defuse the Bosnian crisis.


Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they knew Churkin would move to Brussels when he was entrusted with cementing closer ties to NATO earlier this year. They confirmed that Churkin was going voluntarily and predicted little change in Russian policy in Bosnia.


"It's a normal diplomatic posting. It's been in the air for a long time," one Western diplomat said.


Yeltsin delayed the appointment in the hope that Churkin would still be able to negotiate a political settlement in Yugoslavia, the diplomat said.


"He's been quite keen to go to Belgium," the diplomat said. "It is an increasingly important post."