Vremya MN No. 177

Recognition of the anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya as the Russian contribution to the struggle against international terrorism has brought about an expected change in the position the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe held on the Chechen issue. However, head of the Russian delegation to PACE and Chairman of the State Duma International Committee Dmitry Rogozin, who is freshly back from Strasbourg, was very tentative while commenting on this change in his interview to Vremya MN.

Apparently, the change is not as obvious as Russia wants it to be.

Question: Is it possible to say that PACE's position on the Chechen issue has undergone a radical change?

Answer: I wouldn't call it radical. I'd say PACE's position has become more tolerant and loyal (*). On the whole, despite the variety of different opinions, objectivity prevailed and deputies backed up the observers' report. As you see, no resolution for Chechnya was adopted (**). What I personally find important is that it was probably the first time when the Russian delegation did not have to offer excuses and defend its point, which sounded credible this time. Besides, our reasons were convincing enough to push through almost every amendment we moved to the draft resolution on terrorism - the drive to combat terrorism was the key subject on the agenda.

Question: During the last visit of PACE Chairman Lord Russell-Johnston to Russia, Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov promised to furnish materials proving the connection between Chechen militants and international terrorist organisations. Have these documents come in handy?

Answer: Yes. It was a video footage. We decided against public screening and simply handed out copies of the footage to every speaker. To a certain extent, it must have helped Russia get its idea across to the Parliamentary Assembly.

Question: Could you describe the amendments Russia proposed to the anti-terrorist resolution?

Answer: First of all, we spoke about the importance of adopting an international anti-terrorist convention, i.e. of setting legal norms in a sphere where there are none. We also raised the issue of setting up an international anti-terrorist center under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council.

Anastasia Kornya

http://www.infocentre.ru/eng_user/index.cfm?page=12&date=2001-10-04&startrow=1&msg_id=35951

* No change at all, the PACE position on the Chechen issue has always been "tolerant and loyal".

** Everyone knows that the former resolutions are not yet implemented - and those "decent and politically correct gentlemen" of the PACE just might think about how to change them conveniently in favour of Russia, so it means no resolution is a good resolution for the moment.

BIR