MOSCOW PLEASED WITH WASHINGTON AS “ALLY”… “

Bush has Praised Putin for Chechnya” read a headline in the June 28 issue of the online daily Gazeta.ru. Reporting on the press conference which had followed last week’s G-8 meetings in Canada, the website wrote: “President Bush willingly agreed that Putin could be considered a like-minded person to himself. “This is a strong ally in the war against terror. His actions speak more loudly than his words,” said Bush to the journalists, who with horror understood these words to be praise of the Russian leader for the war in Chechnya.”