WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department said Friday it has discussed with Russia the potential listing of Chechen groups as foreign terrorist organizations.
State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker declined to identify the groups. He called on Chechen leaders to renounce terrorist acts and cut their ties to terror organizations.
If the groups were listed, it would be a crime to make contributions to them and their members would be barred from receiving visas to visit the United States.
Russia long has contended that Chechens who want to separate their region from Russia are terrorists. The Bush administration has urged Moscow to seek a peaceful resolution of the dispute.
Last month, Chechen separatists took control of a theater in Moscow and threatened to kill more than 800 people they had taken hostage. Special forces stormed the theater, killing 41 of the attackers. At least 119 of the hostages died, the vast majority killed by a chemical compound used to incapacitate the terrorists.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the deputy speaker of the Russian Parliament and an ultranationalist, said the United States and Russia should cooperate more closely in combatting terrorism.
Speaking Friday at the National Press Club, Zhirinovsky criticized Russian journalists and deputies who tried to negotiate with the Chechens holding the theater. ``You can't negotiate with bandits, you have to take care of them,'' Zhirinovsky said.
He said Russia should be allowed to go after Chechens in neighboring Georgia ``but the United States is telling us this is not a good idea.''
Zhirinovsky said the United States and Russia ``need to address the problem of terrorism together and the United States has not realized this yet. We are facing the greatest threat to international stability for the next 100 years.''
In a trip to Russia during the hostage crisis, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said he tried to draw parallels between U.S. and Russian experiences fighting terrorism to win backing for a strong United Nations resolution on Iraq. Shelby met with members of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.
A Chechen Web site, meanwhile, published what it claimed to be a statement in which the main Chechen rebel leader, Shamil Basayev, took responsibility for directing the theater takeover.
Russian authorities contend he planned the attack with the approval of rebel Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. The authenticity of the claim was impossible to verify. A spokesman for the Kremlin information office on Chechnya refused to comment.
Reeker said the statement attributed to Basayev would be reviewed.
A Chechen Web site, meanwhile, published what it claimed to be a statement in which the main Chechen rebel leader, Shamil Basayev, took responsibility for directing the theater takeover.
Russian authorities contend he planned the attack with the approval of rebel Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. The authenticity of the claim was impossible to verify. A spokesman for the Kremlin information office on Chechnya refused to comment.
Reeker said the statement attributed to Basayev would be reviewed.
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