Petrodollars fuelling terrorism Russia

["Ulhas Joglekar" <uvj@xxxxxxxx>]

The Hindu

Thursday, October 11, 2001

Petrodollars fuelling terrorism: Russia
By Vladimir Radyuhin
MOSCOW, OCT. 10. Russia has criticised Western attempts to support moderate
factions in the Taliban and named Saudi Arabia as a major source of funding
international terrorists. The Russian Defence Minister, Mr. Sergei Ivanov,
drew an equation mark between Number 1 terrorist, Osama bin Laden, and the
Taliban, calling them ``two sides of a coin''.
``Trying to differentiate between them and to say that bin Laden is bad, but
a section of the Taliban is good, is an absolutely futile endeavour,'' Mr.
Ivanov told the Upper House of Russian Parliament, the Federation Council.
The second most powerful man in the Kremlin very close to the President, Mr.
Vladimir Putin, openly accused Saudi moneybags of funding terrorists.
``Funding of extremists, which comes from the territory of Afghanistan and
Saudi Arabia, is based on two simple sources - petrodollars and drug
trafficking, which brings billions of dollars,'' Mr. Ivanov said, adding
that most terrorists who had carried out the September 11 attacks in the
U.S. were not Afghans, but Saudi citizens. As the U.S. mulls extending the
anti-terrorist operation to other ``hostile'' countries, such as Iraq,
Moscow is advising Washington to pay closer attention to some of its allies,
such as Saudi Arabia. Moscow has long listed Saudi Arabia among main funding
sources for Chechen rebels.
Russia has been active mobilising international opposition to possible U.S.
strikes outside Afghanistan. Informed sources said Russia's Foreign
Minister, Mr. Igor Ivanov, discussed this problem in telephone talks over
the past two days with his opposite numbers in India, China, Egypt, Katar
and the Arab League general secretary.
The Russian Parliament's Upper House on Wednesday voiced the hope that the
anti-terrorist operation would be ``thoroughly measured'' and consistent
with the U.N. Charter. The Lower House Speaker, Mr. Gennady Seleznyov,
called any U.S. attacks on countries other than Afghanistan ``totally
unacceptable''.
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