BLAIR COZIES TO RUSSIANS.

On December 23, the London-based newspaper Telegraph reported that “[Prime Minister] Tony Blair delighted the Russians yesterday by drawing a parallel between an unsolved explosion in Moscow which killed seventy-three [this figure is too low] people two years ago and the September 11 outrage…. Mr. Blair’s comment, which will cause controversy in Britain, was calculated to bolster Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, in his battle to tame the rebellious Chechen republic.”