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Putin: US Provided Support to Terrorists in Russia's Chechnya
Putin told Oliver Stone Russia complained to the US about it only to be told its CIA reserves the right to do so
The United States supported terrorists in Russia's Chechnya Republic both financially and via political means, when Russian troops have been engaged in counterterrorism operation in the region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with director Oliver Stone.
"If to speak about a political support, there is no need in proving evidence. It has been done publicly, openly. And if to speak about urgent financial support — we have such evidence and furthermore have already provided it to our US colleagues," Putin said in the interview for the documentary series, the first part of which was aired by the US TV channel Showtime late on Monday.
The president added that he had informed his then-US counterpart George Bush about this evidence and named several representatives of US security services that had provided support to Chechen militants.
"The response of the US president was very appropriate… He said: 'I will deal with it,'" Putin added.
The Russian leader said that Moscow had later received a response from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on the issue.
"Indeed, we later received via our partner links a letter from the US CIA, which said that our colleagues consider that they have a right to maintain relations with all the representatives of the opposition and would continue to do so. It was obvious that the speech was not only about opposition groups, but about terrorist groups and organizations. But at the same time they had been presented as just opposition," Putin added.
