MOSCOW, Sept 10 (AFP) - Several hundred protesters gathered outside the US and British embassies here Friday to demand the extradition to Russia of two top Chechen rebel figures granted political asylum by Washington and London.
The protesters demanded the return of Akhmad Zakayev, currently living in Britain, and Ilyas Akhmedov who lives in the United States, and accused the two countries of fomenting unrest in the Caucasus by protecting the two men.
They carried banners bearing statements such as: "Give Zakayev back to Russian justice and we will rip him to shreds," "USA: sponsor of the war in the Caucasus," "Akhmadov is a child-killer -- What about you, Bush?"
Up to 400 people rallied in front of each embassy in simultaneous protests one week to the day after hundreds were killed at a school hostage siege in Beslan, southern Russia blamed on Chechen rebels and foreign extremists.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out at the United States and Britain this week, accusing them of using "double standards" in the war on terrorism by protecting figures Russia regards as "terrorists."
Washington earlier this week voiced sympathy for Russia following the Beslan school attack and a wave of other extremist violence in recent weeks, but also reiterated that it would have contacts with any Chechens it deemed appropriate.
"The US says there is not enough evidence" to justify the extradition of the two Chechen rebel figures, said one of the protesters who gave her name only as Yekaterina.
"Beslan is enough evidence," she added. "They are meddling in affairs that do not concern them."
Both Zakayev and Akhmedov have denied any link to the Beslan school tragedy.
The Russian state Duma meanwhile announced that it would raise the issue of political asylum to the two Chechen rebels at a two-day Group of Eight (G8) meeting of legislators in the US city of Chicago on Saturday and Sunday.
This was necessary because rebels "responsible for bloody crimes in Russia receive protection from our coalition partners in the form of political asylum and comfortable conditions for them to continue their subversive activities against Russia," the Duma said in a statement.