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UNFRIENDLY TOWARD RUSSIA, SAYS FOREIGN MINISTRY AS U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT RECEIVES CHECHEN SEPARATIST

MOSCOW, January 24. /RIA Novosti/ - Ilyas Ahmadov, prominent on the Chechen separatist top and Minister of Foreign Affairs of self-proclaimed Ichkeria, visited the US Department of State to be received by its official spokesman, Moscow regards yesterday's Washington event as unfriendly toward Russia, says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press and information department. Whatever justification can be made for them, this and similar steps evidently clash with the spirit of bilateral partnership against international terrorism, as the ministry had pointed out long before.

While calling for a resolute rebuff to terror, whatever form it may take and in whatever part of the world, the US Administration, in fact, supports the Chechen separatist banditry as they are going on with hit-and-run action against Russian soldiers, local administration officers and defenceless Chechen civilians.

The conference with Ilyas Ahmadov indicatively coincided in time with the US media and other sources offering ever new irrefutable proof of Chechen warlords closely linked with Ossama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida. There is firm evidence of Chechen terrorists financed by them, and being trained in Afghan terrorist camps, stress ministerial PR.

Is the grip of stale mental cliches strong enough on the US Administration to go on dividing terrorists into good and bad guys, wonders the ministry. Current developments show clearly enough that Chechen and any other terrorists are all birds of a feather, and must be fought in a close alliance. Russian anti-terror efforts in Chechnya are part of a global crusade, emphasises the Foreign Ministry.

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