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Putin urges India to maintain restraint
By Vladimir Radyuhin
MOSCOW, DEC. 15. Russia has joined Western nations in trying to keep India from attacking terrorist bases inside Pakistan, a media report said.
The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, in a telephone call to the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, last week sought to discourage New Delhi from launching any retaliatory strikes at Pakistan in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament.
A report in the Novyie Izvestia said Mr. Putin told Mr. Vajpayee that the attack could have been masterminded by Osama bin Laden to provoke an India-Pakistan conflict and facilitate his escape from the region. The daily cited unidentified experts as saying the attack was a ``classic diversion strike.'' In a similar scenario in West Asia, Palestinian attacks in Israel had provoked an Israeli backlash against Mr. Yasser Arafat and had helped ward off an immediate threat of a U.S. strike against Iraq.
The Kremlin press service said Mr. Putin had discussed with Mr. Vajpayee the U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and conveyed Moscow's condolences over the attack. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the attack as an ``outrageous manifestation of terrorism.''
Meet condemns attack
Meanwhile, an international conference on security in Central Asia ``strongly condemned'' the terrorist attack and conveyed its sympathy to the Government of India.
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