Shockingly, the program was initiated by British journalists, who worked hard to give an opportunity to appear on TV to a man who is responsible for the death of 320 victims in Beslan in autumn 2004, assumed responsibility for the Nord-Ost hostage taking in autumn 2002, shot dozens of patients in a Budennovsk hospital in 1995, and is guilty of dozens of other equally horrifying acts.
This is a terrorist of Osama bin Laden's magnitude. Russia has placed $10 million on his head. But a respected British channel wanted him as a talking head so much that it compiled a list of questions, which was handed over to a Basayev envoy in a European capital. Four months later, the efforts of British agents were rewarded: They were told to go to a tiny shop in a Middle Eastern town, where they got a CD of Basayev's lazy voice telling them he was preparing more Beslan-scale tragedies.
In fact, the terrorist is preparing his hideous acts hand-in-glove with British television. Addressing the world with the help of the British channel, he seemed to be saying everyone who heard him: I am alive and ready to accept more money from sponsors. Money and weapons, which will flow to Basayev now, can be marked "With the kind assistance of Channel 4."
Moscow called on British television to stop acting as the mouthpiece of international terrorism and one of its most horrible leaders. But London replied, first, that it cannot influence the actions of an independent television channel, and second, that it does not intend to infringe on the freedom of speech. I like the wording, especially because London journalists know very well that the leaders of Channel 4, just as the BBC's board of governors, have cordial relations with Whitehall and are always ready to respect its recommendations.
The Foreign Office can say out loud that the British government firmly denounces the terrorist activities of Mr. Basayev and recall that Britain agreed to put his name on the black list of the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee. But this will not hide the apparent truth that London still divides terrorists into good (who bother Russia) and bad (who threaten the West).
The occupation authorities in Iraq (Britain is playing second fiddle to the U.S. there) promptly closure the Al-Jazeera bureau in Baghdad because it allegedly promoted bin Laden. But according to London's logic, promoting Basayev is quite admissible because his grenade-throwers are targeted not at the West but at Russia.
The television show with Basayev's interview is not unlike other double-standard actions of London, such as granting political asylum to Akhmed Zakayev, a former leader of Chechen bandits, and issuing travel documents under a different name to Boris Berezovsky, a magnate on the wanted list of Russian prosecutors.
On April 10, 1992 the IRA blew up the Baltic Exchange in the City. What would the British authorities have said if Channel One on Russian television had showed an interview with the leader of the IRA cell that had planted the bomb? A man in a black T-shirt with the word "Anti-colonialism" written on it would say calmly about his plans for a dozen more such effective blasts. This would be the freedom of speech in its pure British meaning.
