RUSSIAN MFA INFORMATION AND PRESS DEPARTMENT COMMENTARY REGARDING A QUESTION FROM NTV TELEVISION COMPANY AND INTERFAX NEWS AGENCY CONCERNING WORK OF KAVKAZ CENTER WEBSITE IN SWEDEN

Unofficial translation from Russian

Question: Please comment on the situation around the Kavkaz Center Internet site, which has resumed its work within the territory of Sweden.

Commentary: Moscow has been closely following the appearance in various European countries of Internet sites informationally supporting terrorism. This, of course, is not without reason, as a site of the Kavkaz Center type has a direct bearing on Russia's security. Their materials eloquently speak for themselves. It was no coincidence that this site was earlier shut down in Lithuania, and then its transmissions via Finland were ended as well.

Several days ago Kavkaz Center resumed operating on the Internet with the help of the PORT 80.se provider, located in Sweden. On November 15 the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs drew the Swedish side's attention to this deplorable fact. We expect that Sweden, declaring itself as a consistent participant of the international antiterrorist coalition, will undertake necessary steps towards ending the propaganda of the ideas of terrorism and violence from its territory. There can be no double standards here, as one of terrorists' aims is to attract the public's attention to themselves and sow grains of discord and hatred in the world. Indulging them is inadmissible.

November 18, 2004