U.S. to put Chechen groupings on black list?

The George Bush Administration thinks "Chechen leaders must firmly and unambiguously condemn the acts of terrorism, both in words and in deeds, and terminate their ties with terrorist groups," Deputy Spokesman for the US State Department Philip Ricker said Friday in Washington, D.C. He emphasized that the Bush Administration is constantly studying terrorist activity all over the world and has already discussed with Russia in this context the issue of "the possible inclusion of Chechen groups on the list of terrorist organizations." Answering the question on the statement by one of Chechen terrorist ringleaders Shamil Basayev, who took the responsibility for the preparation of the October 23 Moscow hostage taking, Ricker confirmed that the US "will be considering all these factors" in the process of taking a decision on putting the Chechen groups on a terrorist organizations' list.