According to the Russian tradition, on the ninth day since the terrorists attacked Moscow Metro we commemorate and mourn the victims.

I am sure, you know, that atrocity action, committed by suicide bombers by the order of their trainers from terrorist gangs which are carrying out clandestine activities in the North Caucasus, killed 40 innocent people and injured more than 90. Most of the victims were young people, who were in a hurry to get to school or work in that fatal morning.

This occurrence, which became a true national grief of Russia, deeply shocked the whole world. The US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and many other leaders of foreign states expressed their sympathy with this tragedy. The Foreign Minister of Indonesia Marty Natalegawa called me that day and conveyed the condolences of the leadership of his country. He emphasized that the Indonesian government strongly condemns this acts of terror and assured on its readiness to combat all manifestations of terrorism by joint efforts. Later he discussed this issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the phone.

In this circumstances we couldn’t ignore that indifferent, and often even cynical attitude of some Indonesian newspapers, including The Jakarta Post, towards this tragedy. A number of articles, which appeared in your edition, were of outspokenly terrorist-justifying character, and the published caricatures, first of all, one in the issue of April 5, in our opinion are nothing else but an immoral insult of the Russian state’s and people’s sensibilities.

Being guided by humanistic principles common to all mankind, I believe it is absolutely inadmissible to turn into farce, all the more to grin at the events that tragically claimed the lives of dozens of innocent people.

Caricature is a serious weapon in the hands of mass media today, quite effective to deride defects and vices of the society, but the world had a chance to see where its thoughtless use may lead by the example of scandal over caricatures concerning Islam in Denmark, which is still far from abatement. By the way, Russia immediately condemned the immoral stance of a number of western mass media on such a sensitive religious subject.

In this regard we, to put it mildly, do not understand the attitude of your editorial staff that chose to adopt a dubious humorous approach to coverage of the tragic events which happened in our country.

Alexander A. Ivanov
Ambassador of The Russian Federation
to The Republic of Indonesia
Jakarta

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