Karma is a
bitch:
Russia is preparing pre-emptive actions against terrorists, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the International Conference of Mayors in Moscow on Friday.
---snip---
Yury Baluyevsky, Senior Defense Minister of the Russian Federation and Chief of the General Staff, said on September 8 that Russian armed forces would launch preemptive strikes against terrorist bases. "Preventive strikes on these bases will be carried out regardless of what region they are located in," he stressed. "It does not mean that we are planning nuclear strikes. The forms and methods will depend on the circumstances," Baluyevsky said.
Any region? Is that any region in the Russian Federation? I hope so.
And let's not forget whose wonderful example Vlad is following:
The UK and the US recognized the legitimacy of such measures. According to UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, such actions of Moscow will be in accordance with international law. The UN Charter acknowledged that nations had the right to self defense, he stressed. Mr. Straw said the United Nations Organization agreed that the threat of terrorism justified self-defense measures. For his part, US State Secretary Colin Powell said that the right to carry out pre-emptive anti-terror strikes was part of the inalienable right to self-defense that any country had.
Another wonderful gift of the Bush administration.
Oops. Let's hope Vlad doesn't hear about this:
Ilyas Akhmadov, one of Chechnya's separatist leaders, has officially been granted asylum in the United States, RIA Novosti has learnt from the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, co-chaired by former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinskiand former US secretary of state Alexander Hague.
Wonderful.