President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of undermining Russia's struggle against terror by meeting with Chechen separatists and rejected calls for a public inquiry into whether authorities mishandled the hostage-taking in Beslan.
Putin told a group of Western policy analysts Monday night that his administration has repeatedly complained about meetings between U.S. officials and representatives of Chechen separatists, but to no avail.
Washington has invariably responded with "we will get back to you" or "we reserve the right to talk with anyone we want," Putin told the group during a wide-ranging policy discussion at his residence outside Moscow, according to CNN's account of the meeting.
"Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace? Why don't you do that?" Putin said, according to The Guardian.
"You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child-killers?" he said, Reuters reported.
Putin's comments shed further light on who he had in mind Saturday when he lashed out at those who assist terrorist efforts to "tear off a big chunk of our country" because they "think that Russia, as one of the greatest nuclear powers of the world, is still a threat, and this threat has to be eliminated." Putin was speaking in a televised address to the nation.
Moscow has criticized a decision by a U.S. court to grant asylum to Ilyas Akhmadov, foreign minister in the rebel government.
Putin reportedly bears a personal grudge against British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a British court's refusal to hand over Akhmad Zakayev, envoy to Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov. Denmark earlier refused to extradite Zakayev as well.
"There's a Yugoslavia variant here," Putin warned, according to notes taken by participant Eileen O'Connor, The Washington Post reported. "It would be difficult to imagine the consequences for the rest of the world. Bear in mind Russia is a nuclear power."
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/09/08/002.html
BISHKEK (AFP) Oct 08, 2004
Russia is to base another 200 personnel and nine more aircraft at a base in Kyrgyzstan used by Moscow under a Central Asian security pact, a spokesman for Kyrgyzstan's defence ministry said on Friday.
The seven Su-27 fighter bombers and two Mi-8 helicopters will be based at the Kant airbase near this former Soviet republic's capital Bishkek, close to another airbase used by US forces, by the end of this year, a spokesman for Kyrgyzstan's defence ministry said.
"The total number of people at the Russian base will reach 700, including 500 military personnel," the spokesman told AFP.
Kant was opened by Russia's President Vladimir Putin last autumn, the first new military base to be opened by Russia outside its territory since the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse.
Since its opening the base has already become home to nine Russian Su-27s, two Mi-8s and an AN-26 transport aircraft.
US troops arrived in this traditional sphere of Russian influence in 2001, when Washington launched attacks on Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime following the September 11 terror attacks.
Washington has some 1,000 troops at the Manas base outside Bishkek and not far from the Russian base at Kant.