The US Congress has urged the US State Department to put a Chechen rebel group led by Doku Umarov on the list of foreign terrorist organizations. Chairman of Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) Alcee Hastings introduced the relevant Congressional resolution Thursday detailing the crimes committed by the group and urging the State Department to add them to the list of foreign terrorist organizations. Hastings said that Umarov wants to establish and Islamic state in Taliban style on the territory of Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. "They've got a jihad against Russia and the United States. If that ain't a terrorist organization, I don't know what is." Hastings said. Earlier the State Department did not include the Caucasus Emirate to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Meanwhile, a political analyst from RIA Novosti news agency claims that the reason for the reluctance of some US officials to view Umarov as a terrorist is because "there is an anti-Russia bias. Anyone fighting Russian 'imperialism', as they call it, is basically not a bad man."