Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed the West for adopting double standards on terrorism in the wake of recent hostage-taking tragedy in the south of the country, Vremya Novostei daily reported Thursday.

Lavrov told the newspaper that the West had yet to shake off its adversarial mindset since the end of the Cold War, and their security services were not fully cooperating with Russia in the fight against terror.

Russia is angry that Britain and the United States have given asylum to spokesmen for Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov who Russia suspects of being behind the school siege with another rebel chief Shamil Basayev.

"I would use a neutral term: It's a double standard," Lavrov said.

On Sept. 1, more than 30 armed militants took about 1,200 hostages in a secondary school of the Beslan town in Russia's North Ossetia republic. The crisis ended on the third day after fierce exchanges of gunfire between Russian troops and the militants, but leaving at least 335 dead, half of them children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an internal investigation into the tragedy, which authorities blamed on Chechen separatists.

Russia's Federal Security Services on Wednesday offered a reward of up to 300 million rubles (over 10 million US dollars) for information that will help it hunt down Basayev and Maskhadov.

Source: Xinhua