#6043
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Newsday
January 26, 2002
Russia: War Damaging Al-Qaida, Chechen Ties
By Liam Pleven
RUSSIA CORRESPONDENT
Moscow - In the months since the United States launched its campaign in Afghanistan, the Kremlin's chief spokesman on Chechnya said Friday he has seen no signs of activity between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network and rebels in the breakaway republic.
"I don't have any confirmation at this moment that since the beginning of the operation in Afghanistan there have been any new people - foreign mercenaries - who have been captured, or any messengers [or] financial agents who would be coming with money from somewhere," said the spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, an aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
"Therefore, I can assume that a heavy blow has been delivered against those connections that existed before," Yastrzhembsky added in an interview Friday at his office near the Kremlin. "Whether or not it is final, one needs time to answer that question."
Yastrzhembsky's comments came in the wake of Newsday's disclosure earlier this week that a videotape found recently in a former al-Qaida house in Kabul contained footage of bin Laden lecturing on how the prophet Muhammad fought infidels and other footage of an Arab fighter named Khattab, a shadowy figure believed to have been one of the key leaders of the current Chechnya uprising, consulting with Chechen rebels and men who appeared to be Arabs.
Newsday reported that the videotape appears to have been produced in 2000 for propaganda or to show potential donors how al-Qaida helps the Chechens, though bin Laden did not actually mention Russia or Chechnya in his speech.
Though some analysts have questioned the depth of any links between al-Qaida and Chechen rebels, Russian officials in the past have cited the alleged ties as evidence that the battle they are fighting in Chechnya is part of the same struggle against international terrorism that compelled the United States to launch its campaign in Afghanistan in October.
But Yastrzhembsky's comments indicate the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, which Russia has supported politically, has had an impact. That is potentially significant because Russia has bristled at Western criticism of its conduct in Chechnya. And earlier this week, the Russian foreign ministry released a statement that described a meeting in Washington on Wednesday between a State Department official and Ilyas Akhmadov, a representative of Chechen rebels, as "contradicting the spirit of cooperation and partnership of both countries" in fighting terrorism.
Yastrzhembsky explained how the war in Afghanistan may have damaged al-Qaida's ability to assist Chechen rebels.
"According to our estimations, our modest estimations, in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, there have been 350 mercenaries trained for Chechnya. ... So the mere destruction of these camps in Afghanistan, I think, is a direct contribution to our fight against terrorism in the territory of Chechnya," he said. "I believe that now, both financial connections and sending off mercenaries have become much more difficult."
Yastrzhembsky stopped short of saying that the connections had been completely disrupted, saying only that he had not seen evidence that the connections had been preserved since the campaign in Afghanistan began.
"But we don't think al-Qaida has limited its existence to only Afghanistan," Yastrzhembsky said. "That's why I don't rule out that al-Qaida branches might be located in other countries and, through these branches - not Afghan ones - the support could be resumed."
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