Washington, 28 July: Russia positively assesses cooperation with the United States in neutralizing terrorist and other such-like security threats with respect to a settlement in Chechnya, Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov said today in an interview with Russian reporters, in reply to an ITAR-TASS question.
Along with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, he chaired a regular meeting of the Russian-American working group on the struggle against terrorism yesterday. The meeting was held at the US naval academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
The high-ranking Russian diplomat refused to describe details of Washington's assistance to Moscow in normalizing the situation in Chechnya. "I shall not speak about this," Trubnikov noted. He added, however, "I can give a positive enough appraisal of cooperation with the Americans on Chechen issues and on the struggle against bandits in Chechnya".
The deputy minister flatly refuted earlier controversial press reports that US troops operating in Afghanistan had allegedly handed over captured gunmen of Chechen nationality to Russia, or, on the contrary, had hidden them for some reason. "The Americans have confirmed anything on this matter to us," Trubnikov said.