An envoy of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived Tuesday in east Libya's Benghazi to meet leaders of the rebels fighting against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Xinhua reported.
Russian presidential envoy on Africa affairs Mikhail Margelov met with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of Libya's rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) to address possible ways out of the conflict and ways of preventing a humanitarian catastrophe.
There is no information whether the envoy would travel to Libyan capital Tripoli to talk with the Libyan government.
At the recent G8 summit in France, Russian President Medvedev said he had agreed to try to mediate in the Libyan issue, and said Gaddafi's rule has lost legitimacy and he has to go.
The dramatic shift of Russia's stance surprised the world and confused the Libyan government. Russia had abstained from the UN Security Council vote in March that authorized NATO-led airstrikes to stop Gaddafi's forces from attacking civilians and had been criticizing the air operation in Libya.