Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov ordered his ministry Sunday to sever all contacts with the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in protest over the broadcasting network's airing of an interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev.

"I have ordered the chief of the Defense Ministry's press service today to cut all contacts between Defense Ministry servicemen and the ABC," Ivanov told reporters in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, the Interfax news agency reported.

Ivanov declared the ABC "persona non grata" for the Defense Ministry, saying his ministry will continue to be open with the press but the ABC will be denied access to the ministry and no interviews will be granted to the network.

"If I have to express my feelings over that (ABC's interview with Basayev), I would put it in just one word -- indignation," the Russian defense minister said.

Prior to the Defense Ministry's move to oust the ABC, the Foreign Ministry had summoned the US Embassy's charge d'affaires, Daniel Russell, to express strong indignation over the interview.

Basayev, the most wanted man in Russia after another Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed in March, is believed to have been behind the Beslan school siege last year, which killed more than 330 people, and a number of other terrorist attacks in the country.

Source: Xinhua