Andrei Babitsky : Hello everyone!

Chat Ed : Hi Andrei!

pj : How did you feel about the West's, and UN's failure to enter into negotiations or intervene in helping the rebels with the assault by Russia, did they feel abandoned to their own fate?

Andrei Babitsky : This is one of my most bitter disappointments. From the very beginning of this military campaign, I and several others were counting on Europe and the West to somehow interfere and obstruct or put an obstacle in the way of the huge scale of murder that was being perpetrated in Chechnya by Russia. Evidently this political pragmatism played a decisive role and as it seemed to me the European leaders didn't want to get into an argument with the New Russian Government which was constantly maintaining that the Chechen War was an internal domestic issue of Russia's. The new Russian government was intent on cutting itself off from the outside world in this way. I think that Russia and Europe lost the chance of stopping one of the dirtiest wars of the end of the 20th Century. I think that this war will for a long time to come be a model of the moral relationship between a statehood and society.

James Warren : I think there is a difference between freedom of speech and freedom of the press. How widespread (or not) are both in Russia, and is freedom of speech more prevalent than freedom of the press?

Andrei Babitsky : I think that in Russia today neither exist very strongly because freedom of speech presupposes a certain kind of culture of speech or the spoken word. Freedom of speech is always a moral kind of rule or regulation. When Russian journalists supported the government during the Chechnya war (the last war), they used to the greatest extent freedom of the press, but there wasn't freedom of speech at play here. Because as it seems to me, journalism or if you like the intelligentsia, cannot be ruled by hatred and by the wish for revenge. Today, because journalists and journalism did not have the desire or the wish to use their freedom of *speech*, to a significant extent, they lost the freedom of the press because they had elected a government which deprived them of this. Just one last thing there... I think that the thinking people and journalists among them sort of spoke to the most hatred-filled instincts of society and by doing this they have unleashed a monster which is the Russian Government.

stephen bartley : Your work is a testament to the cause of maintaining human rights. How were you able to keep your thoughts on the message you wanted to portray in the midst of the dangers you faced every day?

Andrei Babitsky : Stephen... my God is the god of mercy and forgiveness. Whereas for many people in Russia today other values are important. For example the triumph of the Russian ethnos on all levels. People are hoping that Russia will again become a superpower. And this is a very strong idea which is infiltrated into the whole idea of revenge against the Chechens. I think it is much more important to extract other lessons from this war. For example the violence against one person which Russian history is full of cannot be effective in solving the problem that exists between Russia and Chechnya. Somebody said - I don't remember who - that war is an epidemic of amorality. I think that in this connection the war in Chechnya may have terrible consequences for the social consciousness, if you like, of Russian society. What has happened here is that we've lost the ability to give any significant weight to the loss of one human life, that it's all become an abstraction, and that we no longer feel individual human suffering.

anna : andrei, i would just like to know how easy was it for you to be accepted by the chechen fighters when you went behind the lines. Were they not suspicious of you?

Andrei Babitsky : It wasn't easy and my colleagues and I (other journalists) took quite some time ourselves to look at the different people that we could trust or work with. And I must say that on the whole the principles which the armed Chechens swear by in their struggle are very alien to me. But on the other hand it was terribly important to me to convey to my audience the woes, the trouble, the misery which I came across there. Perhaps it was the sincerity of my intentions which made an impression on them. Another factor may be also that we as journalists were willing to share the danger of war with these Chechen fighters, and that the armed Chechens began to think of us journalists as their allies. The majority of the journalists could not help but remember how the Chechen fighters used to kidnap and trade journalists and so they would join with the fighters for a short time if only to understand how the Russian Army was waging war against the civilian population. I would like to say that there was no idealogical alliance between the journalists and the Chechen fighters. None whatsoever.

Svetlana : Do you feel that your treatment by the government might make other journalists avoid such direct confrontation with the party?

Andrei Babitsky : The story of what happened to me is to quite a great extent already forgotten. Today there are different subjects and themes which are defining what is dangerous for the journalist who finds himself in conflict with the authorities. But I think that my story was quite important, in that it happened at the beginning of Putin's presidency, and in many ways defined his relationship with the mass media. For my story to have served as a proper lesson, the trouble was is that it didn't have a suffiently dramatic outcome and in all likelihood it would seem that the authorities didn't take my story to its logical conclusion, and it lost a certain amount of resonance as a result of that.

petal : Do you plan to write a book on your experiences in Chechnya?

Andrei Babitsky : Yes I'm already trying to finish a book in the foreseeable future, but it's not going terribly well! I think that sooner or later I will finish it, because as it seems to me it is a very curious kind of conflict the kind of conflict between one individual and the State.. So what can I say, I hope that within the coming month or two I will finish it - I already have a contract with a French publishing house, and readers will be able to learn numerous interesting details about the war in Chechnya, and about what happened to me. There is one thing which I would like to say, the subject of Chechnya of Russia today has practically disappeared from discussion, and I think it is the responsibility of those who began to wage this war and those people are guilty of the death of thousands of civilians. For me, the necessity of writing and finishing this book is about raising the question of the death of these civiliants, and not allowing it to be swept under the carpet.

Chat Ed : Thanks very much Andrei, we're glad you could be with us!

anilyy : I will certainly read your book tempest : thanks andrei
Tom Sykes : thank you Andrei
anilyy : Bye good luck
Heidi : Thank you Mr Babitsky
magnus_potter : Thanks for your time
James : good luck with your book
roland phillips : fantastic journalism

Andrei Babitsky : I'd just like to say in gratitude to the people who made this film - because I think it accurately conveys the key moments in the story of what happened to me. And also the producers of this film have in my view expressed a view of the Chechen War which is very close to my own. It's very pleasant for me to imagine that there is an audience who would willingly watch such a film, because for me it's rather difficult to imagine an audience for such a film in Russia today. That's all.

ged : thanks for the insight
paul leech : free press is the wind of frredom
steve henderson : good journalism - well done
elgin_j : Farewell

Andrei Babitsky thanks you all for coming.
Andrei Babitsky : Goodbye.

Chat Ed : Bye Andrei

Andrei Babitsky leaves the room.