Alwaght- Russian President blamed the rise of Al-Qaeda and its mastermind Osama bin Laden on the US, and accused American spy agency of supported terrorists in Chechnya.
In the first episode of Stone’s hugely Showtime series, which aired Monday night, Vladimir Putin said "Al-Qaeda…is the result of activities of our US friends. This all started in the times of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, when the US security services supported different movements of Islamic fundamentalism in their struggle against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan,” Russia Today reported.
The “US side has nurtured both al-Qaeda and bin Laden," the Russian Leader said referring to [Osama] bin Laden, a Saudi national who founded al-Qaeda in 1988.
Putin implied that the US is complicit in al-Qaeda crimes, saying "It always happens like this. Our US partners should have been aware of it. It is their fault".
Speaking to Stone, Putin accused the US of both openly cheering and covertly financing militant groups in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya during the two Chechen wars. Moreover, the president said there is evidence available that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) even admitted keeping in touch with the terrorists, styling them as the “opposition."
"If we speak about a political support, there is no need in proving evidence. It has been done publicly, openly. And if we speak about urgent financial support – we have such evidence and furthermore have already provided it to our US colleagues,” Putin said.
Putin revealed he confronted George W. Bush about the CIA supporting Chechen militants and got a response from Bush that he would "deal with it".
Later, however, Moscow got a letter from the CIA through “partner channels,” which suggested there will be no change in policy on the issue.
"Indeed, we have later received via our partner links a letter from the US CIA, which said that our colleagues consider that they have a right to maintain relations with all the representatives of the opposition and would continue to do so. It was obvious that it was not only about opposition groups, but about terrorist groups and organizations,” Putin said.
Regime change in Russia doomed to failure
Touching on the issue of the current state of the US-Russian relations, Putin said that if the US strategy toward Russia is indeed focused on disrupting its economy and toppling its government to get hold of its vast nuclear stockpile, then it is incredibly shortsighted.
"I think that it is a wrong policy exactly because such understanding of relations with Russia is not aimed at future. People, who think like that, do not see further than 25-50 years ahead,” Putin said, adding that attempts to turn Russia state into a vassal state will inevitably backfire.
The Russian president argued that the US has “got a false sense that it is able to do everything without any consequences,” in particular after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
"In such a situation, a man or a country begins to make mistakes… The state begins to function ineffectively. One mistake follows another. That is the trap in which, as I believe, the United States got caught into,” Putin concluded.
