Europe no longer wants to be friends with Chechen guerrillas

A curious piece of news came from Europe today. The so-called representative office of the republic of Ichkeria (Chechnya) stopped existing at the Council of Europe today. This was reported by the chairman of the international committee of the Federation Council, one of the leaders of the Russian delegation at PACE, Mikhail Margelov.

Mikhail Margelov expressed his satisfaction regarding the closing of the so-called representative office of Ichkeria at the Council of Europe. The office was opened in Strasbourg a year ago; it operated based on support from the Council of Europe and the French government. Margelov stressed that it occurred because of the successful work of Russian representatives at the Council of Europe (and at PACE). In addition, the fact that the office was closed testifies to the change in the position of the French government regarding the Chechen issue: “The position of the French government became more balanced after the pro-presidential majority came to the parliament of France,” – said Margelov. He also paid attention to the fact that the office was closed the next day after the French foreign minister’s visit to Moscow (it was agreed to sign the statement on the establishment of the Russian-French council for security cooperation).

The European parliament was in the habit of issuing resolutions on Chechnya, portraying Russia as a monster. Europe harshly criticized Russia’s policy in Chechnya, sometimes the heat decreased, but it was not because of real changes in the Chechen position.

Life goes on, the political situation is changing, and so is the situation in Chechnya. It is stupid to hit your head on the wall if you know that you will never break it. Let’s hope that this gesture will be followed with other real actions to shut down the funds, representative offices, ect., in other European countries, in Great Britain, first and foremost. Hello, Mr. Blair, can you hear us?

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov