Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06MOSCOW10285
2006-09-14 14:45:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Moscow
Cable title:  

RUSSIA PROTESTS JAMESTOWN CONFERENCE ON NORTH

Tags:  PREL PHUM PTER PINR RS 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3325
PP RUEHDBU
DE RUEHMO #0285 2571445
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 141445Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2324
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 010285 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/14/2016
TAGS: PREL PHUM PTER PINR RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIA PROTESTS JAMESTOWN CONFERENCE ON NORTH
CAUCASUS

REF: MOSCOW 4081

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Alice Wells.
Reasons 1.4 (b and d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 010285

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/14/2016
TAGS: PREL PHUM PTER PINR RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIA PROTESTS JAMESTOWN CONFERENCE ON NORTH
CAUCASUS

REF: MOSCOW 4081

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Alice Wells.
Reasons 1.4 (b and d).


1. (C) Acting MFA North Americas Department Director
Aleksandr Khudin requested a meeting with PolCouns to express
GOR concern over the September 14 Jamestown Foundation
conference in Washington on "The Future of the North
Caucasus." Noting that Jamestown conferences on the North
Caucasus had become a "bitter theme," Khudin said that the
GOR was aware that organizers had again invited Mairbek
Vachagayev, currently a Ph.D. candidate at a French
university but also the former spokesman for separatist
leader Aslan Maskhadov. The conference Jamestown organized
in April "Saidullayev's Caucasian Front: Prospects for a the
Next Nalchik" had been an insult (reftel),he said, and by
again inviting Vachagaev, Jamestown was providing him with a
forum to propagate views in support of terrorists.


2. (C) Khudin said Vachagaev had openly spoken of his
connections to Maskhadov and Chechen terrorist Shamil
Basayev, and the GOR had other evidence of his affiliations
with them and his knowledge of terror acts that they planned.
Citing Security Council resolutions 1267, 1373, and others,
as well as the Glenn Eagles G8 Summit declaration, Khudin
said the U.S. had international obligations to prevent
incitement of terrorist acts and dissemination of terrorist
information. Khudin, speaking unemotionally and directly,
also noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 1931 that
incitement to violence was an exception to the protections of
free speech in the U.S., and the GOR believed that there was
a sufficient legal basis for the U.S. to stop the conference.



3. (C) Polcouns responded that while the title of the
previous Jamestown conference was offensive to the GOR, the
U.S. believed that discussions of terrorism and its spread in
the North Caucasus and elsewhere was a legitimate topic of
discussion and did not constitute incitement. She emphasized
that Jamestown was a non-governmental organization, over
which the USG did not exert control or policy direction. The
U.S. opposed terrorism in Russia, and it had been working
cooperatively and productively on counterterrorism with the
GOR, including on issues related to Chechnya. If the GOR had
specific information on Vachagaev, then it should share it
through the appropriate channels. Polcouns noted that
support for Chechen separatism did not in and of itself
consitute proof of terrorist complicity.


4. (C) Polcouns urged the GOR to highlight the noteworthy
accomplishments in bilateral CT cooperation, particularly
against the backdrop of the CT Working Group currently
convened in Washington. It was unfortunate that when the GOR
protested the Jamestown Conference in April, some Russian
government-owned media had portrayed the seminar as USG
support for Chechen terrorists. To the contrary, the U.S.
wanted to be helpful in the North Caucasus, not just on
counterterrorism, but in finding other ways to work with the
GOR on bringing stability to the region. Polcouns pointed to
US participation in an upcoming UN planning meeting on future
international assistance in the North Caucasus.
BURNS