Russia ready to go to war

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned today that he is preparing to go on the offensive against terrorists.

The threat came after the mastermind of the bloody school siege and other terror outrages put ultimate blame for the Beslan massacre on Putin, whom he called the Kremlin Vampire, and threatened more attacks.

Putin told a meeting of world mayors in Moscow that “now in Russia, we are seriously preparing to act preventively against terrorists".

Lower-level officials including Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov have threatened preventive strikes against terrorists abroad, and it was not immediately clear whether Putin was referring to actions only at home or abroad, too.

Putin said that the steps would be ”in strict accordance with the law and norms of the constitution, relying on international law”.

Recalling the attempts to appease Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, Putin said there could be no ”bargaining” with terrorists.

“Every concession leads to a widening of their demands and multiplies the losses,” Putin was quoted as saying.

Putin has steadfastly refused any negotiations with Chechen rebels. He said that Russia had long tried to warn the rest of the world of the danger of terrorism, and that even today, it confronted double standards that hurt the anti-terrorist campaign.

Putin repeated his admission that Russia’s efforts so far to combat international terrorism had been inadequate.

“In this war there is no rear or neutral zone, and where terrorists don’t meet the necessary resistance, their bases and co-ordination centres crop up,” Putin said.

He spoke soon after Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev admitted on a website that he was responsible for the recent terror attacks that have shaken Russia and claimed more than 430 lives

Basayev claimed he had sent a letter to Putin proposing “independence (for Chechnya) in exchange for security”.

It was impossible to confirm whether the text – signed with Basayev’s nom de guerre, Abdallakh Shamil, Emir of the Riyadus Salikhin Martyrs’ Brigade”, on the website was genuine.

Even as he put forward conditions for peace, Basayev threatened more attacks, saying Russia had forced such a course on the rebels.

Basayev’s e-mail offered new details of the Beslan hostage-taking. He said the 33 attackers included 10 Chechen men, two Chechen women, nine Ingush, three ethnic Russians, two Arabs, and five other Russians from various ethnic groups.

He boasted he had trained the school attackers in forests only 12 miles from Beslan.

The Federal Security Service’s spokesman in Chechnya, Major General Ilya Shabalkin, revealed today they had captured an Algerian mercenary, identified as Kamal Urakhli, who had served as an explosives expert in Basayev’s group. Urakhli had lived in Britain for about 10 years, he said.