“A Common Struggle”

September is a sad month both for Russia and the United States. The world remembers the atrocities of Beslan and September 11. Both tragedies were provoked by abominable terrorist actions. The world should remember what must be done to fight such criminal acts and how a double-standard policy can harm our cooperation. Arranged and planned by Shamil Basáyev, the Beslan’s massacre is an open wound for Russia. The aid offerings received from Europe and other states have helped us ease our pain a little. I hope the governments will come together against terrorism and the first thing to be done in this regard is forbidding terrorists any shelter.
There is still a lot to be done in this field. A new step is expected to be taken in the 2005 New York Summit. The crimes perpetrated by people like Bin Laden, Basayev or others have earned them to be included in the world terrorist list. Such people should not be admitted into the mass media. That’s why we protested energetically when the ABC interviewed Basayev. That provided him with a space to justify his actions.
Establishing a distinction between Basayev and Bin Laden makes terrorist attacks legitimate and undermines the unity of the nations against terrorism.