Russia on Wednesday backed the United States' right to hunt down and kill al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden as its leaders prepared to holds talks with visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated in an interview released Wednesday that Moscow fully supported Washington's position and did not question its right to strike inside Pakistan.
Russia congratulated the United States moments after the successful raid was announced and Lavrov stressed that Moscow had no qualms about the fact that bin Laden had been killed without being put on trial. "Our position is very simple," RIA Novosti quoted Lavrov as telling the Moskovskie Novosti paper in an interview due to be published Thursday. "After September 11, 2001, the Security Council adopted a resolution recognising the United States right to self-defence," Lavrov said.