MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - The speaker of the lower Russian chamber of parliament said Tuesday that a decision made by Chechnya's acting prime minister to bar Danish non-governmental organizations from the republic over the publication in Denmark of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed had no legal force.
Boris Gryzlov said he regarded Ramzan Kadyrov's decision as an expression of personal opinion and that it could become legally binding only if an appropriate government body approved it.
Speaking at a Moscow news conference Monday, Kadyrov said, "We will no longer let them [Danish organizations] in, precisely for that reason [the publication of the Mohammed cartoons]."
The Chechen official's statement came amid a wave of violent protests that have swept the Muslim world following the publication of the caricatures in Danish and, subsequently, other European newspapers.
Images (cartoon crisis: Muslims of the world say "No!")
