Russia hails bin Laden death as ‘serious success’

Russia on Monday hailed the death of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden as a great success and vowed to step up its cooperation with the United States in the fight against terror.

“The Kremlin welcomes the serious success the United States achieved in the war against international terrorism,” President Dmitry Medvedev’s press service said in a statement.

“Retribution inevitably reaches all terrorists,” it added in comments that echoed those made by US President Barack Obama when he announced the Al-Qaeda leader’s death in a White House address.

Russia’s then-president Vladimir Putin was the first leader to telephone his US counterpart George W. Bush and express his sympathies over the September 11, 2001, terror attack masterminded by Bin Laden.

Putin at the time expressed Russia’s willingness to expand international cooperation with the United States and compared the attack to a string of Russian apartment block bombings that killed nearly 300 people in 1999.

Russia blamed those attacks on North Caucasus Islamist extremists with links to international terror networks such as Al-Qaeda.

And the Kremlin drew that parallel again on Monday as it voiced willingness to work more closely with the United States in its fight against terror networks.

“Russia was one of the first countries to face the threat posed by global terrorism,” the Kremlin said in reference to the 1999 bombings. “It has a first-hand account of what Al-Qaeda is,” the statement said.

“Only a joint and united fight against global terrorism can achieve substantial results. Russia is ready to step up this type of cooperation,” the Kremlin statement said.