#10
Russia informs USA of Chechen groups it regards as terrorist
ITAR-TASS

Washington, 30 January: Russia forwarded [to] the US administration some materials which should help the State Department to put three Chechen groups onto "the black list" of foreign terrorist organizations, said here the Russian president's assistant, Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, speaking with Russian reporters on Wednesday [29 January] evening on the results of his visit to Washington.

He held here meetings with US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, high-ranking officials of the State Department, congressmen and politologists.

Yastrzhembskiy said that these groups include the so-called Basayev's battalion of shahids [suicide bombers], the Congress of Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan and the Supreme Military Mejlis-ul-Shura - United Force of Caucasian Mojahedin. These groups operate directly in Chechnya and are the most active terrorist organizations.

"We are interested that following an adopted procedure in the US, they should be included in the official list of international terrorist organizations," the assistant said. According to Yastrzhembskiy, the Russian authorities would like "Europe and Canada to adopt a similar procedure".

Replying to ITAR-TASS, Yastrzhembskiy said that "the Congress of Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan had direct connections with [Chechen separatist president] Aslan Maskhadov in the past", while its leaders included, from the very start, such odious figures as Movladi Udugov and one of the Khachilayev brothers.

As for "the Supreme Military Mejlis-ul-Shura - United Force of Caucasian Mojahedin", the group was knocked together by terrorists of Shamil Basayev and Abu al-Walid...

[Russian news agency Interfax in English at 0639 gmt quoted Yastrzhembskiy as saying the USA had "confirmed its preparedness" to put the three groups on the black list, though it would take Washington "some time to analyse the new documents".]

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