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I would like to give my sincere condolences to all the victims and the families of those killed. Today's events in the United States overstepped national borders. This is a blatant challenge to humanity. The events today once again underline the importance of Russia's proposal to unite the world community's efforts to combat terrorism, this plague of the 21st century.
~ President Vladimir Putin; 11 Sep 2001 

The terrorist attacks in America on 11 September came just over a year after a number of terrorist attacks in Russia, most notable the destruction of an apartment block in Moscow and the blast at Moscow's Pushkin Square metro station on Tverskaya.

During a live internet debate in March of this year, President Putin said "the actions of the Russian army are aimed at the liberation of the Chechen people from the terrorists who have seized power there, who are compromising both Islam and the Chechen people....the Russian army was forced to react to the gauntlet that the extremists and international terrorists threw down when they attacked Degestan."

Islamic militants have made clear their wish to set up a fundamentalist Moslem state, along the lines of the Taleban regime in Afgansitan, between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Four months ago Osama Bin Laden was planning his escape from Afganistan, one of the destinations being considered was Chechnya.

According to reports in the American press, five of the terrorists responsible for the attacks on the Pentagon and the World trade Centre, have fought in Chechnya over recent years on the side of the Chechen separatists.

Whatever misgivings we may have about the way in which the Russian army has operated in Chechnya, the West must re-evaluate its own attitude to the war in Chechnya and the growing threat from Islamic terrorists.

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