Posted on 07/29/2005 7:05:10 AM PDT by aculeus
BBC NEWS
Russia says it is outraged by an interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev broadcast on America's ABC television network.
The Russian foreign ministry summoned a senior US diplomat in Moscow to express its "strong indignation" over the show.
In the interview, the warlord, who had claimed the 2004 raid on a school in Beslan, admitted he was a terrorist but said the Russians were terrorists too.
Russia's most wanted man also warned of further Beslan-type attacks.
More than 320 people - around half of them children - were killed in the attack at the school in September.
Russia is offering $10m (£6m) for the capture of the warlord, who it also accuses of several other major attacks.
Condemnation
The interview with Shamil Basayev - recorded at his hideout in Chechnya - was aired on ABC's Nightline programme on Thursday.
The Russian foreign ministry said on Friday it summoned the US Charge D'Affaires, Daniel Russell, to express its "strong indignation with the fact of the airing of the Basayev interview".
On Thursday, the Russian embassy in Washington said ABC's apparent decision to ignore Moscow's arguments against broadcasting the material was deplorable.
Its statement said the Chechen rebel leader was "responsible for slaughtering innocent victims during many major terrorist attacks that he masterminded and personally perpetrated".
"The most shocking and deadliest of them was the cold blooded killing of hundreds of children" in Beslan.
The interview "runs counter to the spirit of Russian-American partnership in our joint fight against the global threat of terrorism", the embassy said in the statement, which was also broadcast by ABC.
Basayev's warning
In the interview, Mr Basayev - speaking through an interpreter - admitted that he was "a bad guy, a bandit".
"Ok, so I'm a terrorist, but what would you call them (the Russians)?
"If they are the keepers of constitutional order, if they are anti-terrorists then I spit on all these agreements and nice words," he said.
The warlord accused Russia of killing thousands of Chechen women, children and old people in what he described as "a colonial war".
When asked if Beslan-style attacks could happen again, he said: "Of course they can. As long as the genocide of the Chechen nation continues... anything can happen."
The warlord also refused to accept responsibility for the deaths of children killed in Beslan, blaming instead Russian authorities.
Published: 2005/07/29 11:47:46 GMT
© BBC MMV
How in the heck does ABC get an interview with this pig when the Russkies want to kill him?
I don't at all blame the Russians for being pissed, but someone needs to tell them that no one even watches Nightline.
Birds of a feather flock together.
ABC should have turned this kid-killing, apartment-leveling terrorist in, instead of interviewing him.
The Russians have every right to be p'ed off and have every right to nuke ABC headquarters if you ask me.
I don't by it...I'm still waiting for the revenge from the Russian's...
Remember the Beslan school massacre?..if that happened here we would have taken no prisoners...
nah....putin needs a monster so he can pass laws restricting the commons..
Imagine if Russian TV bradcast an interview with Bin Laden.
Always Been Communist?
Is the Pope Catholic?
Does Russia realize yet that unlike Russia the government DOES NOT control the media???
ABC acting like al-Jazeera. Who would've thunk it?
Read the Russian press.
You can read the Moscow Times on-line in English.
The Russians have been rounding these guys up and killing them by the dozens.
Amnesty International was all upset about one incident last winter where over twenty "rebels" were slaughtered. Apparently, they were in the process of surrendering when Russian forces opened up. The Russian commander claimed that it was a "false surrender" because there was gunfire coming from within the house from which the group was surrendering.
Amnesty International claims that the Russian Commander was lying.
Even if he was, what are they gonna do? Sue him?
There was another guy they took prisoner. They even had photos of him in handcuffs with his shirt torn off to expose the pistols he had under each arm. The man died whiile being questioned. I wonder how that happened?
The Russians would LOVE to get a hold of Besayev. If they did, he would only live as long as they thought they were extracting useful information from him.
ABC didn't do the interview, it was done by a russian reporter who lives there.
"So how did "Nightline" get access to an interview with such a figure? The simple answer is we got a call that a Russian journalist, Andrei Babitsky, had interviewed Basayev in Chechnya in late June and he would make the interview available to "Nightline." When Babitsky traveled to Chechnya, he expected to meet with the vice president of the rebel government, Doku Umarov. But after a circuitous travel route and two days at an unknown location, Babitsky was taken to a car. Inside the vehicle: Shamil Basayev. Babitsky says no one was more surprised to see Basayev than he, though he has known Basayev since the early days of the first Chechen War in 1994.
Basayev agreed to be interviewed by Babitsky, shot by a camera Babitsky operated by remote control. Asked how he can justify the taking of children's lives, Basayev responded, "I see no other way to stop the genocide of the Chechen people ... it's my nation ... and I'll pull no punches to stop this genocide -- but within the limits of my religion. And in my religion, Allah tells me in the Koran, 'Fight against them how they fight against you, but don't cross the line.' And I try not to cross the line, and I haven't yet."
Babitsky says Basayev's main aim is to win sovereignty for Chechnya, by any means. At the end of two days with Basayev, the Chechen rebel asked Babitsky in a casual way if he thought that his actions were justified. "No, Shamil," Babitsky responded, "you weren't able to convince me ... I told you you were a terrorist, a criminal and to me you will always be one."
"Nightline" offered the Russian government an opportunity to participate in this or a future broadcast. The offer was declined.
whoever the interviewer was, they should be enjoying a dose of sodium pentathol.
Please write your comments to Nightline concerning this barbarous act.
ABCTV.News.Niteline.NLINTRN1@abc.com
Does Russia realize yet that unlike Russia the government DOES NOT control the media???
does american media know words like shame & conscience??!?
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