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Russia Accuses US of Double Standards on Terrorism Issue
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko on Thursday blamed the United States for using double standards in fighting terrorism, and also condemned the U.S. "fluky" stand on the struggle against terrorism.
"It is inappropriate to apply double standards that divide terrorists into 'bad,' if they fight against Western governments, and 'good,' if they conflict with regimes unsuitable for the West, " Yakovenko told reporters here, commenting on U.S. press reports about contacts between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Osama bin Laden.
Russia has repeatedly reminded the United States and other Western countries that a true international terrorist coalition has formed, but these countries had not paid much attention to this, he noted.
Therefore, Moscow "was not surprised by reports" that Albanian guerrillas in the Balkans have long had contacts with bin Laden.
Russia has long warned that extremist forces in the Balkans and throughout the world use slogans of "national self-identification and human rights protection for pursuing the policy of destabilization and heightening tensions," but the United States and NATO are still providing the Albanian extremists with shields, Yakovenko said.
This attitude toward Albanian extremists and the U.S. stand on Russia's combating Chechen terrorists are widely different, which clearly indicates Washington's double standards in handling issues concerning terrorism, he said.
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