Russia protests at rebel leader's TV interview

Russia’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at Britain’s Channel 4 television, which was scheduled to broadcast a videotaped interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev today.

“We perceive such an action as the latest step in information support of terrorists active in the North Caucasus,” the ministry said .

“We are certain that such an irresponsible step in disseminating to a wide viewership the views and threats of a bandit who is being searched for through Interpol and who is on the list of the counter-terrorist committee of the UN Security Council runs counter to the efforts of the international community in fighting terrorism,” the ministry said.

It said that the Russian Embassy in London had appealed to British authorities not to allow the interview to be broadcast.

In the interview with Channel 4 News, Basayev expressed regret for the hundreds of deaths in the June hostage-taking attack on the school in the Russian town of Beslan.

But he was also quoted as saying that the separatist rebels are planning more such operations.

The interview was filmed last month by Basayev’s entourage at an undisclosed location and the video given to a journalist in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency reported today that there were reports that Basayev had been killed. However, Basayev has frequently been reported to have been killed in the past – only to surface and claim responsibility for terrorist acts.

The news agency quoted the deputy head of the State Security Service in the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia as saying that the rumours were coming from people who had been in contact with Basayev during the 1992-93 war between Georgia and Abkhazia.

Basayev fought on the Abkhazian side, and Interfax said he was married to an Abkhazian woman.