Russia claims right to take action beyond borders

The News (Pakistan)
November 6, 2002

Russia declared Tuesday the right to take preemptive military action beyond its borders in the fight against terrorism and said it would re-evaluate its relations with countries that do not join the fight.

Declaring a "battle without borders," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that "the armed forces will be used if necessary, according to the kind of terrorist act (being prepared or carried out) and the involvement of foreign countries."

Ivanov also announced that Russia planned to modernize its military and keep a million-strong army that was both mobile and well equipped. In a series of statements, published separately in the Izvestia daily and made during his tour of army bases in the Russian Far East, Ivanov delivered a tough new warning against Chechen guerrillas and international terror groups.

"They have declared war on us," Ivanov said in reference to last month's Chechen hostage crisis in Moscow that saw at least 120 civilians die. "This battle has no borders, no fronts, or visible enemies," he said in an interview in Izvestia. Ivanov added that Russia was redrafting its foreign policy following the latest wave of Chechen attacks.

"Our bilateral relations with other countries will in the future be based on how the other country responds to terrorism," said Ivanov. Russia's relations with Georgia have been particularly strained following accusations from Moscow that the Tbilisi leadership was turning a blind eye to guerrillas bases established on its territory by rebels from neighboring Chechnya. Tbilisi has expressed concern that Moscow could send its forces into the lawless Pankisi gorge region in northern Georgia which Russia says the rebels are using as a rear base.

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Nieuwe Oorlog 2002 | Ander Nieuws week 46