Chechen President Alu Alkhanov Friday criticized "certain western countries and their media" for adopting "double standards" on international terrorism after an interview with notorious Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev was broadcast.

"I can give no other assessment to the actions of the ABC (US-based American Broadcasting Corporation) News television channel, which broadcast an interview with Shamil Basayev last night," Alkhanov told the Interfax news agency.

In the interview with the US television program, Basayev accepted the label of "terrorist" and threatened to take new terrorist actions against the Russian government.

"I was startled by how they allowed this person, who openly claimed responsibility for dozens of terrorist attacks in Russia, which claimed hundreds of human lives, to voice new threats against Russia and the Russian people," Alkhanov stressed.

The Chechen president said "those who gave the floor to Basayev have not fully realized what threat this person and other terrorists like him pose to the whole world."

If such an approach is adopted toward terrorists, Russia will never succeed in the fight against terrorism, the president added.

Alkhanov also called on all nations in the world to establish a united front against terrorism and "refrain from dividing terrorists into good ones and bad ones."

On Thursday night, the Kremlin also denounced the US network's decision to tailor the interview, noting that the interview runs counter to the spirit of the Russian-US partnership in the fight against the global threat of terrorism.

Basayev, the most wanted terrorist by the Russian government, had claimed responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school hostage-taking attack, in which more than 330 people were killed and over 700 others wounded.

He is also believed to be the planner of the 2002 hostage-taking assault on a theater in southeast Moscow, which claimed 170 lives.

Source: Xinhua