Basayev interview angers Moscow
By CNN's Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Moscow has again lashed out at the decision by Britain's Channel 4 News to air an interview with Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev.
For the second day in a row Friday, Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a strongly-worded statement on its Web site, saying any attempt to justify giving a platform to terrorists by citing freedom of the press looks "cynical."
"We consider this step direct informational aid to terrorists active in the Northern Caucasus," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said.
"Under current circumstances, any attempts to justify giving air time to terrorists who have the blood of innocent people on their hands, including children, by citing freedom of the press looks, at the very least, cynical."
Speaking with CNN, Yakovenko repeated his charges of media cynicism and said such a broadcast violates U.N. resolutions which call on members not to justify terrorists or their actions.
The interview with Basayev aired Thursday night on Britain's Channel 4.
In it, Basayev, who earlier claimed responsibility for last September's Beslan school massacre and the hostage taking at a Moscow Theater in 2002, threatened to carry out more "Beslan-type attacks in the future" in Russian cities and against Russian federal forces serving in Chechnya. (Full story)
Meanwhile, in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, the deputy head of the region's security service claimed to have new evidence that Basayev was killed in an argument with an Arab mercenary in Chechnya.
Russian authorities have not confirmed the report. Similar statements have been made previously about Basayev but have not been substantiated.
