MOSCOW, Aug 6 (AFP) - Russia reacted with fury Friday to a US decision granting political asylum to the self-declared foreign minister of separatist Chechnya who is viewed as "terrorist" by Moscow.
Moscow accused Washington of setting double standards in its global war on terror, in a comment straining relations between two Cold War era foes that had warmed after the September 11 attacks on the United States but have had increasingly frequent chilly spells in recent months.
Ilias Akhmadov, foreign minister in the self-styled but unrecognized government of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, told AFP that he was informed this week that he has been officially granted political asylum by authorities in Boston.
He had been initially granted asylum earlier this year but the US office of homeland security challenged the decision. Akhmadov said the appeal has since been withdrawn and he now officially staying in the United States.
"I learned (on Monday) that they had granted it to me," Akhmadov said by telephone from the United States.
Russia, which accuses Akhmadov of terrorism and of links to an armed incursion in the Russian republic of Dagestan in 1999, has been seeking his extradition since he arrived in the United States in 2002.
"I am happy to have succeeded in convincing the American authorities that the accusations were unfounded," Akhmadov said.
He is considering a post in the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy.
A US official in Moscow refused to confirm that Akhmadov was indeed in the United States but said granting him asylum status should not reflect on Washington's relations with Moscow.
"The US government is not allowed to interfere on decisions on asylum cases," the US embassy official said. "No decision on asylum should be misinterpreted as a statement of foreign policy."
But Moscow was not convinced.
The foreign ministry said the decision showed that Washington was "setting double standards in the fight against terrorism."
"These sort of actions contradict the spirit of Russia-US relations and do not correspond our joint goals of fighting international terrorism," it said in a statement.
It said Moscow has "repeatedly asked the United States to extradite this international terrorist... but unfortunately we must note that our requests were ignored."
Maskhadov was a top field commander in the first Chechen war from 1994-1996 and won the presidency the following year after Russian troops pulled out and gave the Muslim republic in the Caucasus region de facto independence.
But he was quickly disavowed by Moscow, which poured troops back into the impoverished region in October 1999 to fight what was to be a lightning anti-terror operation but has instead descended into drawn-out guerrilla war.
The former Chechen president has been in hiding since then, with various reports suggesting he was either in Chechnya's southern mountains -- still under rebel control -- or a neighboring Muslim state.
Following the assassination in May of pro-Russian president Akhmad Kadyrov a presidential election is due to be held on August 29.
Akhmadov has said he intends to represent the interests of Chechnya in the United States and elsewhere.
Washington has notably reduced its level of criticism of Moscow over Chechnya since September 11.