BLAIR WEIGHS IN.

On October 10, the website Politcom.ru reported on an interview which Tony Blair, the prime minister of Great Britain, had just granted to the BBC before setting off for Moscow to see President Putin. Blair, the website wrote, “made an important preliminary declaration on Chechnya which immediately removed any tension which might have arisen in Moscow…. Tony Blair gave to understand that he shares many of the arguments of Moscow concerning this problem [of Chechnya]. ‘Of course,’ [Blair stated], one has to seek to achieve that human rights are properly observed in Chechnya. But when we speak of the problem of terrorism, one should not forget that Russia itself has been a victim of terrorism on the part of extremists based in Chechnya.'” [Blair’s words have been translated back from the Russian.]