MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the world community on Monday to strip terrorists of all support and prevent the spread of terrorism around the world. "Any attention to them [terrorists] on the part of the media, any double-standard interpretation of their motives and results of their activity means nothing but a political and administrative support of terrorist actions," Putin said in an interview with members of the Dutch media on the eve of his visit to Holland.
He said hostage-rescue operations could not be conducted less violently "because the conditions the terrorists put us in do not allow us to do otherwise. These are people who do not accept compromises."
Putin also spoke against any attempts to enter negotiations with terrorists and offer them political asylum in exchange for their mercy.
He said the European political thought had long assumed the possibility of pacifying any aggressor, any extremist "by making a deal with them by all means as long as we are left alone."
"This is a very dangerous philosophy leading to dire consequences," Putin said. "Terrorists cannot be bribed even by an offer of an asylum. The latest tragic and bloody events in some European countries provide the best support to what I have just said."
Putin compared still-at-large Chechen militant leader Shamil Basayev to Osama bin Laden and called both of them "rats that are hiding behind the backs of their supporters."
But Putin emphasized that there were other leaders in Chechnya besides Basayev.
"Many of them have been eliminated, many have switched their allegiance and work on the side of federal authorities in Chechnya."
