A strong defence of Russian policy in Chechnya was mounted by Mr Gennady Seleznyov, the Speaker of the Duma, the Russian Parliament, in a speech to the Institute of European Affairs in Dublin yesterday. "Chechnya is above all our great ordeal and terrible tragedy. People of different nationalities - Russians, Chechens, others - constantly perish in this region of Russia and these are not the only ones directly involved in military actions but also civilians.
"The great majority of Russians are undoubtedly in favour of peaceful life without war in our country, including in Chechnya. Not a single state can tolerate the existence on its territory of such an extreme demonstration of international terrorism as there is in Chechnya. "The Chechen terrorists fight not only with arms and not only with the Russian army. They are constantly intimidating and terrorising the Chechen population itself which is extremely tired of war and great suffering and longs for the establishment of normal peaceful life at home.
"Therefore, the military actions of the (Russian) federal forces in Chechnya, with the support of the local militia, are to no extent Russia's war against the Chechen people, but a counter-terrorist operation." While Mr Seleznyov praised Ireland for its opposition to sanctions against Russia in the Council of Europe because of its Chechen policy, he was told by Mr Richard Townsend, political director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, that Ireland hoped the Chechnya issue would be resolved before this State took over the European Presidency in 2004. Mr Seleznyov said in his speech that "the Russian leadership, including the State Duma, devotedly follows the principle of complying with the generally accepted norms of international law in all countries without exception - from Kosovo to Chechnya".