In his words, Moscow could not help but take notice of the words by the official spokesman for the US Department of State, Richard Boucher, that Washington does not rule out contacts with certain Chechen political figures whose point of view is different from the stance of the Russian government and that the USA sticks to different opinion than the Russian side with regard to some of such persons.
"We know well what stands behind such reasoning which is called upon, first and foremost, to legitimize Maskhadov's envoys, one of whom recently received political asylum in the United States", Yakovenko pointed out.
"It is many times now that we drew the attention of the US side to the fact that any of such contacts are absolutely unacceptable. They are speaking about the persons who masterminded the heinous attacks of terrorists in Russia which evoked the indignation of the whole world," the foreign ministry's official spokesman said.
Yakovenko recalled that the entire world community condemned the latest unprecedented in its cruelty attack by international terrorists at Russia. The leaders of the entire world addressed the Russians with words of condolences, solidarity and support, with US President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other representatives of the US leadership being among the first, Yakovenko said.
"The ambiguous statements in which attempts are being made again to divide terrorists into "bad' and "good" ones are obviously discordant with this." Yakovenko stressed.
"We have to repeat again with all certainty that we will never agree with the fact that attempts are being made to present overt accomplices of international terrorism in Chechnya as "freedom fighters" and to propose them as a certain alternative to the current efforts of the people of the Chechen Republic and the federal center to restore a normal life in this region of Russia," Yakoveko emphasized.
He also called as inappropriate Boucher's statements that Washington is thinking how to achieve a political solution of the Chechen problem.
The process of the restoration of a normal life in the Chechen Republic is an internal affair of Russia. This process is going on with the support of the Chechen people and will be continued consistently," Yakovenko said in conclusion.
