THE HAGUE, February 24 (RIA Novosti) - Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic on Friday protested the UN war crimes tribunal's refusal to let him go to Moscow for medical treatment, calling it unfair.

The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia refused to grant Milosevic temporary release from detention to travel to Russia, saying there were no sufficient guarantees that the man, charged with genocide and war crimes, would return for his trial, nor was there any evidence to prove he could not be given adequate medical care without leaving the Netherlands.

The tribunal said that if he wanted to be treated by doctors from Russia or some other foreign country, the defendant could have them invited over to the Netherlands.

Last December, Milosevic, 64, suffering from a heart condition and high blood pressure, asked to allow him to go for treatment to the Bakulev Institute, Russia's leading cardiology center.