…BUT CALLS U.S. LEADERS HYPOCRITICAL.

On June 20, Akhmad Kadyrov, the non-elected head of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration, gave an interview to the website Chechenskaya Respublika in which he said this about his recent conversation with the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow: “He asked me about the observance of human rights. I immediately countered by citing the example of [American behavior in] Afghanistan. States that seek to teach Russia how it should behave in Chechnya are not defending the interests of the Chechen people. They have a need to see a festering wound on the body of Russia…. They [the U.S. leaders] are supporting the so-called president Maskhadov. They nourish him with hope.”