Thursday, 25 November, 1999, BBC: No 'Cold War' over Chechnya The United States has signalled that it does not want to link international aid to Russia with the war in Chechnya. * That would be embarrassing. For its own imperialist reasons the USA would rather appease Russian aggression against the right of the Chechens to self-determination. US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, said that the war in Chechnya must not be allowed to damage relations between Russia and the West, and turn Russia back into a Cold War enemy. * Naturally not, it would rather allow Russia to develop as a sub-imperialism so long as it can be run by Yeltsin and the oligarchs in alliance with western imperialism. She was speaking after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered more than $100m be added to the Chechnya war budget. Some US officials have recently suggested Washington might block International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans if Russian military action in Chechnya intensified. Mrs Albright said that the two issues, of IMF loans and the war, should be kept separate. "We believe it is very important for there to be economic stability in Russia. That is in our national interest," she said. "The last thing I think that we should be doing is trying to turn Russia back into an enemy. We spent 50 years in that mode." She added that the recent 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall "made it apparent to me one more time how much time was lost during the Cold War." Mrs Albright reiterated that the Chechen conflict should be solved through political dialogue. Our correspondent in Washington, Richard Lister, says this is a politically awkward situation for Washington. * Ha! The US is facing an uncomfortable choice. Either it can give financial support to a government whose military tactics it roundly condemns, or withhold assistance and jeopardise both relations with Russia and the economic stability of the region as a whole. The army was promised the extra funds in October, but the IMF warned that it would suspend help if military spending ran out of control. * How embarrassing! Chris Burford London --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---