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quote:Russia's president Vladimir Putin yesterday reaped the first rewards from his policy of supporting the international campaign against terrorism, when Germany's chancellor Gerhard Schröder called for the west to modify its stance on Moscow's battle with Islamist separatists in Chechnya.
Mr Schröder called for a "new evaluation" of Russia's seven-year battle with the rebels. "As regards Chechnya, there will be and must be a more differentiated evaluation in world opinion," he told a joint press conference at the start of the Russian president's visit to Germany - his first to a Nato state since the attacks on the US.
The chancellor's comments marked a distinct softening of tone. The EU has been sharply critical of the indiscriminate bombing, allegations of torture, and wholesale abuse of human rights in Russia's attempt to suppress separatist Chechen fighters. At one point Russia was threatened with expulsion from the Council of Europe, of which it is a member.
Mr Schröder was speaking after Monday's announcement that Russia would help arm Afghanistan's Northern Alliance opposition and allow US planes to use its air space for humanitarian aid. A Kremlin spokesman yesterday stripped some of the significance from the move, saying it would mean formerly covert aid for the alliance would now become overt.
But Mr Putin yesterday used a speech to the Bündestag, the lower house of the German parliament, to cast his nation in a new light as a valuable ally of the west.
Mr Putin insisted that years of armed rebellion in Chechnya should have served as a warning of the threat of Islamic extremism. He accused the west of being stuck in cold war categories of conflict and complained it remains wary of Russia. "Meanwhile, we don't recognise the real dangers," he said.
"Today we must firmly declare: The cold war is over," Mr Putin said. "The world is in a new stage of development."
He also highlighted his view that Russia is as much at risk as any nation from Islamist violence. "International terrorists made clear their wish to set up a fundamentalist Muslim state between the Caspian sea and the Black sea," he said.
Mr Putin delivered his parliamentary address in fluent German, which he learned as a KGB officer in Dresden. His audience, including the former chancellor Helmut Kohl, gave him a standing ovation after the half-hour speech.
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Mr Putin has also announced a 72-hour deadline for the Chechen rebels to begin discussing disarmament with Russian officials and end all contacts with international terrorists.
Full, horrible story here.
So this is how it works from now on. Join the US-led New New World Order, pledge to help the fight against "terrorists" (the definition of which, as Bush has made clear, is anyone who is not on the side of the US-led New New World Order), and hope that the EU and US will turn a blind eye to those human rights abuses you engage in while squashing those pesky "rogue states"...
[ 26-09-2001: Message edited by: Flyboy ] |
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