RUSSIA’S Foreign Minister yesterday launched a blistering attack on David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, for his decision to grant political asylum to Ahmad Zakayev, a Chechen actor wanted by Russia on terrorism charges.

In an interview with The Times, Igor Ivanov said Mr Blunkett’s recent decision was “an insult to all the many victims of terrorism in Chechnya and in other cities in Russia”.

He gave warning that if Britain continued to give asylum to terrorists, this would hurt co-operation between the two countries in the global fight against terrorism.

“I would hope that this decision will not set a precedent but will be the last of such a kind. If this line continues, every terrorist will try to portray himself as a political victim, and in this way avoid the legal consequences.”

He suggested that Mr Blunkett’s decision was part of the continuing “double standards” in the West over terrorism and attitudes still influenced by the Cold War. Russia has been campaigning for months for the extradition of Mr Zakayev, whom it accuses of organising terrorism and playing a part in the Chechen seizure of a Moscow theatre last year.

Mr Ivanov, upbeat and reflecting some of the growing authority which Western diplomats say he has been showing within the Putin government recently, said he was not criticising the judgment of the extradition court, which found that Russia had failed to provide sufficient evidence to order Mr Zakayev’s return. But he clearly found the political decision, taken by the Home Office, unacceptable.

He linked the Zakayev decision to a new anti-Russian campaign over Chechnya. “Unfortunately every so often in Western Europe there comes a wave of anti-Russian criticism related to Chechnya. If you look at the motley groups you will see the main characters are always the same 10 to 15 people organising the meetings, no more. They move around from country to country, saying the same things at scripted events.”

He said that no one was looking at what is happening in Chechnya now. People were silent about this year’s referendum, the new constitution, the presidential election or the fact that in Chechnya the war had virtually finished, he claimed. Universities were open, children were going to school, but no one was speaking of positive developments.

On Georgia, where he played a vital mediation role last weekend, Mr Ivanov sharply criticised what he called American “outside interference”, which he said even the former President Shevardnadze had admitted.

Mr Ivanov, who flew to Kiev after Mr Shevardnadze’s resignation for an emergency meeting of the former Soviet republics making up the Commonwealth of Independent States, voiced CIS concern at what it saw as a dangerous precedent in Georgia.

“We can see that these methods, which the US used, are methods of pressure and attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of our countries.”

Russia’s only interest in Georgia had been to stop the popular discontent — which he blamed on serious mistakes by the Shevardnadze government — from spilling into violence. “In this, we succeeded”.

But he admitted that Moscow had had sharp difference with the Shevardnadze government, especially over its failure to expel Chechen fighters.

Russia has frequently made clear its irritation at Georgia’s attempt to woo America and Nato. Mr Ivanov said Georgia was a sovereign state that could decide whatever line of policy it wished. But he reminded Tbilisi of the long and close relations with Russia.

On Iraq, where Moscow has also sharply criticised unilateral American actions, he said the only way forward was through the United Nations Security Council.

Russia was ready to help with Iraq, but only on certain conditions. These were: that the Security Council should be responsible for any political settlement in Iraq; and secondly there should be a conference in which Iraq’s leading political and religious groups would take part as well as the big powers and the UN Security Council. Its aim would be to hand sovereignty back to the Iraqi people.

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