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US 'siding with terrorism'
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RUSSIA accused the United States of siding with terrorism yesterday after a senior US official held talks with an envoy from the separatist republic of Chechnya.
The foreign ministry described as "immoral" a meeting in Washington between US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Newly Independent States John Beyrle and Chechen envoy Ilyas Akhmadov, whom a spokesman charged had "blood on his hands".
By going ahead with the meeting with Chechnya's self-styled "foreign minister", the US administration "has shown which side it is really on in the international fight against terrorism", the Russian foreign ministry said.
The meeting, said to have lasted "several hours" on Monday, was bitterly opposed by Moscow which has warned repeatedly that it would have negative consequences.
Officials for the Kremlin's Chechnya spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said the contacts between Beyrle and Akhmadov "reflect Washington's double standards in its relations with Russia" and "contribute nothing to Russia's fight against terrorism."
The US State Department "managed to receive Akhmadov and condemn the terrorist acts on the same day," they noted.
The chairman of the State Duma foreign affairs committee Dmitry Rogozin said there were now "solid grounds to add the United States to those who officially support terrorism."
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