Russia: Russia fired its latest diplomatic salvo at Poland yesterday after Warsaw denounced the killing by Moscow's troops of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.
The Kremlin was stunned on Tuesday when, as it welcomed the demise of a man it called a brutal terrorist, Poland decried his death in the plainest terms.
"Those who committed this murder wanted to prevent a [ peaceful] agreement," said Aleksander Checko, a spokesman for Poland's foreign ministry. "It was not only a crime but also political stupidity and a big mistake."
Poland is the EU's strongest critic of the Russian campaign to crush Chechnya's separatist rebels, and had urged Moscow to accept an offer of peace talks from Maskhadov, who was the most moderate of the region's guerrilla leaders.
"Maskhadov was the only one with whom they could talk," Mr Checko said. "Now this option has been wiped out."
While Maskhadov blamed more extreme Chechen warlords like Shamil Basayev for the bloodiest rebel attacks on civilians, the Kremlin refused to negotiate with a man whom it blamed for atrocities like the school siege at Beslan.
"Moscow does not understand, and is stunned by, the comments from a Polish foreign ministry representative," Russia's foreign ministry said yesterday. "The blood of thousands of Russians, including those of children, was on [ Maskhadov's] hands.
"Will Poland also express its disappointment over the elimination of terrorist-killer Basayev . . . or of [ Osama] bin Laden?"