Deputy Speaker of the State Duma from the Yabloko faction Vladimir Lukin thinks that the recent summit meeting in Shanghai had "great psychological value". "Twenty states of the world that perform half of the world's trade clearly expressed their support for the fight against terrorism," noted Lukin in an interview with journalists on Monday October 22, 2001.

According to Lukin, "American diplomacy did not achieve big results" at the Shanghai summit, as they did not manage to "transform talk into joint actions" within the framework of the anti-terrorist coalition two Muslim countries - Indonesia and Malaysia.

As regards the "Russian-American part of the summit" the former Ambassador of the Russian Federation in the USA thinks that the discussion between President Vladimir Putin and President George Bush "was constructive".

"However, this was only another case of reconaissance, we expect to see the main results from the US summit meeting of the two leaders," noted Lukin. Lukin also expressed his opinion that the stop of Vladimir Putin in Dushanbe, where he had talks with President of Tadjikistan Emomali Rakhmonov and President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan Burkhuddin Rabbani was "correct and very timely". Lukin also thinks that it "resulted from a serious discussion between Putin and Bush" in Shanghai.

Lukin also directly linked the role which Russia plays now in the "freeing the Northern Afghanistan from terrorist bases" with Russia's future participation in the establishment of new state system in Afghanistan. He also noted that "if it transpires that we are playing a more active role", then "our vote will have more weight in the friendly dialogue" on the formation of the new Afghan government.

Based on Interfax reports.

See also:

Acts of Terror in the US