President Vladimir Putin accused the West of indulging terrorists on Friday, just hours after a Chechen warlord claimed responsibility for a wave of deadly attacks in Russia and threatened more. "A patronizing and indulgent attitude to the murderers amounts to complicity in terror," Putin said, widening a rift between Russia and the West over how to deal with Chechen rebel violence.
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Shortly before, Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev said he had ordered the Beslan school siege in southern Russia in which more than 320 hostages were killed, half of them children, and threatened more attacks by any means he saw fit. "We have long warned about the threat of terrorist attacks, but our voice has not been heard," Putin told an international meeting of city mayors. "Moreover, we faced double standards in the attitude toward terrorism," he said, repeating charges the West has been two-faced by giving asylum to top Chechens and urging Moscow to negotiate with rebel leaders but rejecting the possibility of dialogue with Osama bin Laden.
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He said calls to deal with Chechen separatists recalled the failed appeasement of Nazi Germany before World War II. "I urge you to remember the lessons of history, the amicable deal (with Adolf Hitler) in Munich in 1938 ... Of course, the scale of consequences is different ... But the situation is very similar. Any surrender leads to them widening their demands and makes losses worse." His comments are certain to fuel the mounting tension with a West critical of Putin's policy on Chechnya and which has warned that his recent response to terror attacks -- by handing more power to the Kremlin -- threatens Russia's brittle democracy. |