Author: Elaine Sciolino
Publication: The New York Times
Date: November 12, 2002
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/12/international/europe/12RUSS.html
In an outpouring of vitriol and
insults, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia today accused rebels in
the breakaway province of Chechnya of being international terrorists who
believe that all non- Muslims deserve to die.
The verbal assault was unusual,
not only because of what Mr. Putin said but also because of where he said
it - at a staid summit meeting of the 15-nation European Union.
"They talk about the need to kill
all non-Muslims, all cross-bearers," Mr. Putin told a joint news conference
with European Union leaders, referring to his Chechen opponents. "If you
are Christian, your life is threatened. If you reject your religion and
become an atheist you are also in danger. If you will decide to become
Muslim, even this will not save you because traditional Islam is from their
perspective hostile to their purposes and goals."
Mr. Putin, who was speaking in Russian
through interpreters, added: "If you want to become an Islamic radical
and if you'd like to get your circumcision, please come to Moscow. We are
a multiconfessional, multiethnic nation. Please come. You are welcome and
everything and everyone is tolerated in Moscow."
But in a more accurate translation,
as heard on NTV in Moscow and translated by The New York Times, his words
sounded far more menacing. "If you want to become a complete Islamic radical,"
he said, "and are ready to undergo circumcision, then I invite you to Moscow.
We're a multidenominational country. We have specialists in this question
as well. I will recommend that he carry out the operation in such a way
that after it nothing else will grow."
Mr. Putin's remarks were carried
in some Russian newspaper and television reports but did not immediately
provoke outrage, or even draw comment.
The summit meeting today was supposed
to be a day of celebration. Russia and the European Union reached agreement
on travel rules for Kaliningrad, a small wedge of territory of about 900,000
people that is part of Russia but geographically separate from it. The
problem for Russia is that Kaliningrad will be surrounded by European Union
territory once its neighbors Poland and Lithuania join the group in 2004.
Under the deal, Russian citizens
will be able to travel between Kaliningrad and Russia proper after receiving
either a multiple re-entry transit pass or a so-called light document that
will permit single return trips only by train.
Still, the arrangement represented
a retreat for Russia, which had long objected to its citizens effectively
needing the permission of outsiders to travel from one part of their country
to another. Mr. Putin himself had said he would never accept a division
of Russian territory. The European Union placated the Russians by agreeing
to a feasibility study next year on nonstop trains between Kaliningrad
and Russia that would avoid the need for transit documents.
Russia also desperately wants to
enhance its relationship with the European Union, particularly in trade
and investment. In 2001, only 4.6 percent of the European Union's imports
came from Russia while 2.8 percent of its exports went to Russia.
The deal on Kaliningrad was marred
by deep divisions between the European Union and Russia over Chechnya.
So great were the disagreements between Mr. Putin and the Danish prime
minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the meeting's host who holds the presidency
of the European Union, that the gathering ended with no overall communiqué.
"We of course support Russia in
the fight against terrorism," Mr. Rasmussen told Danish radio before Mr.
Putin's arrival. "But I also want to say that it is not a long-term solution
to the Chechnya problem to launch a military action and bomb the country
to pieces."
The European Union has long urged
Russia to negotiate with responsible Chechen leaders to try to find a political
solution.
The meeting was Mr. Putin's first
foray into Western Europe after the 57-hour takeover last month of a Moscow
theater by Chechen guerrillas. The siege ended with the death of 128 hostages
and 41 Chechen rebels, with most of the hostages killed by a gas used by
Russian forces.
The siege has emboldened Mr. Putin
and his defense minister, Sergei B. Ivanov, who has halted a planned troop
pullout from Chechnya and vowed to intensify the Russian offensive against
Chechen separatists. On Sunday, Mr. Putin said he was no longer willing
to negotiate with Chechnya's elected president, Aslan Maskhadov, whom he
branded a "murderer" in the wake of the hostage crisis.
Mr. Putin's rage during the news
conference was set off by a provocative question from the correspondent
from Le Monde about whether in trying to eradicate terrorism he was also
going to eradicate the civilian population of Chechnya.
On a side street outside the conference
center, about 200 demonstrators gathered behind police barricades to protest
the Chechen war.
"Putin is a terrorist," read one
banner. "Gas, the new form of killing," read another, a reference to the
assault by Russian security forces to end the seige at the Moscow theater.
"The war in Chechnya is a colonial
war," the French philosopher André Glucksmann told the group. "Stalin
carried out action to deport the Chechens and the Russian Army is once
again exterminating the Chechen people."
The summit session had originally
been planned for Copenhagen. But the site was changed to Brussels in response
to Russian protests over a conference of Chechen rebels in Copenhagen just
days after the end of the Moscow siege.
After a separate meeting with Mr.
Putin today, the NATO secretary general, Lord Robertson, expressed support
for Russia's military clampdown on Chechen guerrillas, acknowledging that
there are international terrorists in Russia.
"Russia has a right to deal with
breaches of law and order on its own sovereign territory," he said. "And
the desperate and criminal acts used by the hostage takers in Moscow a
few weeks ago underlines the seriousness of the situation faced by Russia."
He added, "It is also becoming increasingly
clear that there are international terrorist elements involved in the insurrection
in Chechnya."
