RUSSIA: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West not to meddle with Russia's Chechnya policy yesterday, highlighting a growing rift over the issue between the former Cold War enemies.
In a reference to British and US offers of asylum to spokespeople for Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, he said the West was interfering in an internal issue.
"When our Western partners say we should re-examine our policy, what you call our tactics, I would advise them not to interfere in our Russian internal affairs," he told reporters.
"Some try to interfere by offering political asylum to terrorists who are directly linked to the Chechen tragedy." At least 326 hostages - half of them children - died in last Friday's chaotic storming of the Beslan school after it was seized by gunmen demanding Chechen independence.
Russia blames Maskhadov and warlord Shamil Basayev for Beslan and other Chechen-related violence and links them to groups who conducted attacks such as the September 11th attacks on the United States and the Madrid train bombings.
Though the European Union and the United States were quick to condemn the latest violence, they have infuriated Moscow by pressing it to deal with the root causes and address the grievances of the Chechen people.
Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet president when the Chechnya crisis started, also called yesterday for talks with the rebels.
Putin, speaking after the hostage killings, said the demands for the Kremlin to negotiate with separatist rebels were akin to inviting Osama bin Laden to the White House for dialogue.
Russia has instead sought to end Chechen demands for independence by force of arms, fighting two wars there since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 saw long-suppressed ethnic and national tensions boil over into violence.
"This policy is supported by the Chechen people which voted in a referendum for a constitution to keep the Chechen people in the Russia Federation," said Lavrov.
Meanwhile, Chechen rebels promised to pay $20 million to anyone helping them capture Putin in a statement posted on separatist websites, a day after Moscow offered $10 million for the capture of Basayev and Maskhadov.
Maskhadov, a relative moderate among Chechen separatists, has denied involvement in the hostage-taking. Basayev has yet to comment, but experts say the attack showed all the signs of his leadership.
Many Russians say corruption among the security services is partly to blame for Beslan and other attacks, since heavily armed separatist fighters managed to infiltrate areas hitherto untouched by the decade-long Chechen conflict.
Muscovites surveyed by the respected Levada centre, an independent polling institute, felt overwhelmingly that the state could not protect them, with 77 per cent of the 500 people interviewed after Beslan saying the security services could not guarantee their security.
The same survey showed 34 per cent of people blamed the FSB and police for the hostage-taking, compared to 33 per cent who blamed militants.
Putin has made clear tough measures will be adopted to rein in separatists and stop their attacks. In a hint of what might be discussed by parliament later this month, an influential regional leader demanded the return of the death penalty for terrorism scrapped under Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin.
"Terrorists should not be captured," Interfax quoted Aman Tuleyev, the governor of Urals Kemerovo region, as saying.