Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West not to meddle with Russia’s Chechnya policy on Thursday in the wake of a bloody hostage crisis, highlighting a growing rift over the issue between former Cold War foes. He said, in a reference to British and U.S. offers of asylum to spokesmen for Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, that the West was directly interfering in an internal issue. “When our Western partners say we should re-examine our policy, what you call our tactics, I would advise them not to interfere in our Russian internal affairs,” he told reporters. Full Story