Putin praised for not giving in to guerrillas
POLITICIANS applauded President Vladimir Putin's refusal to bow to a guerrilla demand that Russian troops withdraw from Chechnya.
It is a popular hardline approach which was a major factor in Putin winning the presidency more than two years ago. Parliament speaker Gennady Seleznyov said Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov and his supporters "will soon wave the white flag" of surrender. In a speech to the nation on Saturday night, Putin asked for forgiveness for the deaths of so many hostages. However, he blamed what he called international terrorism for the theatre siege.
It was, he said: "A strong and dangerous, inhuman and cruel enemy ... Nowhere in the world can people feel secure until it is vanquished. But it must be vanquished. And it will be vanquished." Putin has long linked so-called international terrorism to the problem in Chechnya where rebels have been battling on and off since 1994 to break from Moscow's grip.
While Chechen rebel leaders yesterday condemned the theatre siege, they warned that more attacks would come, possibly targeting one of Russia's many nuclear stations. A senior aide to rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, who is not recognised by Moscow, said the drama meant Moscow had to choose between talking to gunmen or the man elected president of the breakaway North Caucasus republic in 1997.
"We warned earlier the situation would get out of control," Akhmed Zakayev, Maskhadov's personal envoy said.
"It is a good thing they did not take a nuclear power station.
"It could have been a much worse catastrophe.
"We cannot guarantee something like this will not happen again," he added. But Putin won swift support from the United States, which praised him for ending the siege with what US Ambassador to Washington Alexander Vershbow called "success in limiting the loss of innocent life."
And White House spokesman Ari Fleischer called the attack a reminder of the threat of terrorism.
Putin has tied Russia's conflict in Chechnya to Washington's declared war on terrorism, which he enthusiastically backed after last year's September 11 attacks on the United States. But a voice of criticism on Saturday from French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin will have given him a rude awakening.
"I believe one must distinguish between things: terrorism, which is reprehensible in all its forms and wherever it might be, and crises which genuinely call for the search for a political solution.
"This is clearly the case in Chechnya, we've said it for years," Villepin said on Europe 1 radio.
