Putin: Boston bombing shows West's mistake

Putin says Boston bombings should spur closer security cooperation between Russia and US

4/25/2013

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the Boston bombing should spur closer security cooperation between Moscow and Washington but it also proves that the West was wrong in supporting militants in Chechnya.

Putin said the two ethnic Chechen brothers accused of staging the explosions — and who have only briefly lived in Chechnya as children — have “proven the correctness of our thesis” about the need to pool efforts in the fight against terrorism.

Putin criticized the West for refusing to declare Chechen militants terrorists and for offering them political and financial assistance in the past.

The U.S. has urged the Kremlin to seek a political settlement in Chechnya and provided humanitarian aid to the region during the two separatist wars that began in 1994.