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Russia on Monday accused the Warsaw city council of supporting international terrorism by naming a roundabout after a Chechen rebel leader.
"It is difficult to consider this as anything other than an insult to the memory of Russian victims of terrorist acts in Moscow and other Russian cities and an actual display of support for international terrorism," the foreign ministry said.
It said in a statement said that the naming of the roundabout after Dzhokhar Dudayev -- Chechnya's first rebel leader who was killed by a Russian rocket in 1996 -- "could only provoke indignation."
The idea of naming the roundabout after Dudayev had come from members of right-wing parties in power in the city council and has been denounced by the Polish government.
The spat comes almost two weeks after Poland irked Russia by describing the killing of Chechen guerrilla leader Aslan Maskhadov by Russian forces as a "crime" because he had been the only rebel leader capable of reaching a peace deal with Moscow.
Poland, the biggest European Union member among the former Soviet satellites in central Europe, has long been critical of Russia's tough line in Chechnya and is home to many Chechen refugees from the conflict.
Relations between Russia and its former east European satellites remain marred by distrust 15 years after communism collapsed across the region.
| Source: Reuters | March.22.2005 |
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