Chechnya is Russia's Internal Affair: Bush

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 22, 2002

Chechnya is Russia's Internal Affair: Bush

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US President George W. Bush, in an interview broadcast by Russia's NTV television on Thursday on the eve of talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, said the Chechen issue is Russia's internal affair andwill hopefully be resolved peacefully.

Bush said that he would try to persuade the Russian leader to work toward a peaceful settlement in Chechnya.

Bush also gave a full backing to the Russian leadership in dealing with last month's deadly hostage-taking crisis in a Moscowtheater.

A total of 128 hostages died as Russian special forces stormed the theater seized by some 50 armed Chechen terrorists, using gas to incapacitate the explosive-attached attackers.

A national leader must act firmly when terrorists kill civilians. Vladimir Putin was in a dire situation, and the terrorists threatened to kill 800 people, Bush said. He stressed that Putin did whatever he possibly could to save lives.

Some people place the blame for what happened on Russia, while it is the terrorists who must pay for what they have done, Bush said.

Bush said that he intends to discuss possible ties between elected president of Chechnya Aslan Maskhadov and international terrorists during his upcoming meeting with the Russian president in St. Petersburg.

The US president called the anti-terrorism fight a new type of war, which has no historical precedents.

Bush said that previously combats were against armies equipped with tanks, airplanes and ships, while today enemies are holed up in caves and act through suicide-bombers. This requires other methods of warfare.

Bush welcomed the start of a dialogue between Putin and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze.

He called for a common strategy that would help track down murderers and al-Qaeda accomplices who may be hiding in the Pankisi Gorge and whose sole goal is to destabilize the situation in Russia.

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