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Putin Urges Chechen Militants to Surrender Within 72 Hours
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday urged Chechen rebels to surrender within 72 hours.
"I am urging all members of the illegal armed groups and those who call themselves political leaders to cut short all contacts with international terrorists and their organizations," Putin said on ORT television when making a nationwide address on Monday evening.
He urged the rebels "to get in touch with official representatives of the federal authorities within 72 hours to discuss the procedure of disarmament and their return to peaceful life in Chechnya."
Viktor Kazantsev, the presidential commissioner in the Southern Federal District, of which Chechnya is a part, will be authorized to realize these contacts on behalf of the federal authorities, the President said.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on the same day that Moscow has been struggling against international terrorism for many years, not only in Chechnya. "Chechnya and Afghanistan are branches of one tree, whose roots are in Afghanistan," he said.
The minister said "international terrorism has been appearing in territories that no one controls", such as in the Philippines, in Chechnya and in some countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
"The possible counter-terrorist operation in Afghanistan must not take the form of a military operation only. Enormous financial and drug flows must be cut," he said.
The minister noted Russian border guards in this year have seized more than two tons of heroin on the Tajik-Afghan border alone.
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