Unofficial translation from Russian

Question: According to media reports, Denis McShane, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Deputy Foreign Minister) of Britain, has declared that the Foreign Office has proofs of Chechen gunmen's links with Al-Qaida. Please comment on this statement.

Answer: The Russian Foreign Ministry has taken note of Mr. McShane's assertion, published in the media, that Chechen extremists maintained close and long-established contacts with terrorists based in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime and, in particular, that some foreign terrorists who underwent training in Afghanistan and had links to Al-Qaida then went to fight in Chechnya.

These estimations of the Foreign Office representative fully coincide with the Russian ones.

January 27, 2004