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| Putin Voices Support for U.S. Attacks on Afghanistan |
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MON, OCT 08, 2001
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday regarded the U.S.-led strikes in Afghanistan as a predictable response to terror attacks, saying he believed the United States would do its best to prevent harming Afghan civilians.
The events were "quite predictable," Putin said at a regular cabinet session, stressing the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington have claimed thousands of lives, which twice exceeded the Russian losses in all land operations in Chechnya.
"The huge loss could not have passed unnoticed, and a reaction simply had to follow," he said. "This reaction has been expected by those who fight against terrorists and the terrorists themselves."
Putin said he was absolutely sure that "the U.S. president and the U.S. administration will do their best to prevent the harming of Afghan civilians."
The Russian president also briefed government chiefs about his Sunday telephone conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush, some 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the attack.
"The U.S. president called me at about 8:00 p.m. Moscow time ( 1600 GMT) yesterday, and said the operation against terrorist gangs in Afghanistan would start within an hour or so," Putin said.
American and British forces launched missile attacks Sunday against military targets and Osama bin Laden's training camps inside Afghanistan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on the same day voiced full support to the U.S.-led military operation, accusing the Taliban itself of waging the war.
The ministry said in a statement released late Sunday that the whole world has realized the necessity of opposing terrorist actions, which threaten world peace and security, by all available means and under the U.N. Charter.
Terrorists, wherever they are, in Afghanistan, Chechnya, the Middle East or in the Balkans, must know that "justice will punish them," said the statement.
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