PUTIN STRESSES TERRORISM IN RUSSIA.

On February 12, the online daily Gazeta.ru published the complete text of President Putin’s interview held on the previous day with the Wall Street Journal (the Journal had limited itself to summarizing the main points of the interview). Asked about the state of U.S.-Russian relations in relation to the struggle against terrorism, Putin declared: “I think that you will agree with me if I say that the struggle with terrorism did not begin on September 11 of last year…. You know, even before September 11, Muscovites and the residents of other large cities of Russia had experienced similar tragedies, with somewhat smaller numbers of victims but of the same character–the explosions of the apartment buildings [in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999].”