The leader of radical Palestinian group Hamas said Friday that the conflict in breakaway Chechnya was Russia's internal problem, provoking a protest from the Chechen rebels.
"It is Russia's internal problem. We do not interfere in other states' internal problems," Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal said after talks in Moscow.
Chechnya, a mainly Muslim province in southern Russia, has been wracked by two conflicts in the past decade between Russian troops and Chechen separatists.
Although large-scale fighting has ended, regular skirmishes and rebel land mine attacks continue. Human rights activists accuse Russian forces and their local Chechen allies of major abuses against civilians, including kidnapping and extra-judicial executions.
Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev, who has been granted political asylum in Britain, said the Hamas statement was a betrayal but not unexpected.
"We did not expect there to be any difference between Hamas and Yasser Arafat," Zakayev told The Associated Press by telephone from London, referring to the late Palestinian leader. "They have put the interests of the Russian government above that of religious solidarity with Chechen Muslims."
Russia's invitation to Hamas, extended by President Vladimir Putin, was the first crack in an international front against the group, which has sent dozens of suicide bombers to Israel and does not recognize the right of the Jewish state to exist.
Hamas won parliamentary elections in January and is working to form a government.
