Bryan denounces Chechnya bombing

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, June 6, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and members of a U.S. delegation on a 12-day trip to Russia and several former Soviet states told Russian officials they objected to Russia's military pounding of rebels in Chechnya.

Russian bombing raids in Chechnya, under attack since September, continued during the American delegation's trip.

The officials also found opposition party members and other intellectuals in disagreement with new Russian president Vladimir Putin on the controversial issue of military strikes in Chechnya, Bryan said.

"Not everyone is a Putin supporter," Bryan said. Putin supports strikes in Chechnya.

The U.S. officials did not meet with Putin. Their itinerary was separate from a trip taken by President Clinton, who met with the Russian president last weekend.

Bryan, along with Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., met with foreign ministry officials inside the Kremlin in Moscow, as well as officials in St. Petersburg, Kiev and Simferopol in the Ukraine, Istanbul, Turkey, and Sofia, Bulgaria. Shelby is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Bryan is vice chairman.

In mostly hourlong meetings with foreign officials and accompanying interpreters and guides, the senators focused on issues related to counter-intelligence, terrorism, nuclear proliferation and organized crime, Bryan said.

The officials also spent much of their face-to-face time discussing the developing economies. Bryan said Russia and the former Russian states did not appear as destitute as many assume. But they are far from developed systems that provide moderate lifestyles for a majority of citizens.

Still, many areas of the cities that the U.S. officials visited seem to be thriving, although sometimes driven by the black market, Bryan said.

Bryan saw abundant evidence of U.S. and European companies -- Nokia cel phones, Coca-Cola, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Dunkin Donuts franchises.

"My overall impression is that there is a tremendous amount of economic potential," Bryan said. The tour, paid for by taxpayers as an official congressional trip, was Bryan's first to Russia. His sight-seeing included a tour of Red Square and a trip to the Bolshoi Theater for ballet in Moscow. The cost of the trip was not immediately available.