MOSCOW. Oct 19 (Interfax-AVN) - Chechen President Alu Alkhanov has welcomed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov's decision to send troops from Chechnya's Vostok and Zapad battalions to Lebanon to provide security for the Russian engineers rebuilding bridges in the country.
"This has shown once again that residents of the Chechen republic are no different from other citizens of the Russian Federation and that the Chechen republic is one of the constituents of the Russian Federation," Alkhanov told a news conference at the Interfax main office in Moscow on Thursday.
"Nobody should be surprised by that units from the Chechen republic are sent to some other region of Russia and abroad to fulfill various tasks," he said. Chechen servicemen are no different from other Russian servicemen who have taken an oath to defend their native country, he added.
The decision to send Chechen servicemen to Lebanon was "absolutely right," Alkhanov said. "As far as I know, the Arab world and other nations responded quite positively," the Chechen president said.
Alkhanov said he was convinced the republic's servicemen "will fulfill their task to a high standard."