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Putin Vents Frustration Over Chechnya
Friday, March 1, 2002
(09:52)
Reuters

Putin was especially irate about the complicated mechanism for financing the Chechen Republic. “The money gets to Chechnya as if through a labyrinth -- through a countless number of official departments and bank structures,” Putin said and called for the system to be reformed.

Speaking at a Russian Security Council session devoted to Chechnya, Vladimir Putin said he was “extremely perturbed” by the poor results of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Finance Ministry and the Chechen administration’s attempts to stabilize the situation in the republic. President Putin is particularly angry with the Kremlin propaganda department -- again, it is losing in the information war with the separatists.

Opening the Security Council session on Wednesday, President Putin said that the session must report on the four areas of issues concerning the normalization of the situation in Chechnya: military, socio-economic, political and the issue of refugees. Before reports were made on each sphere, the President gave his own evaluation of the state of affairs in the breakaway republic. His evaluation was of a dual nature.

On the one hand, Putin said that the situation in Chechnya had seriously stabilized and that the threat of large-scale military actions by the insurgents had been practically eliminated.

On the other hand, Putin said the power structures had failed to fulfill all of their objectives. In particular, the president said the most dangerous rebel warlords have not been neutralized, the channels of arms and supplies and finances to the rebels have not been completely cut off and foreign mercenaries are still getting into Chechnya.
(More: Gazeta.RU News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan