RUSSIA: ARE PRO-MOSCOW FORCES CLOSING IN ON CHECHEN PRESIDENT?
Over the past several days, members of the pro-Moscow Chechen leadership have repeatedly claimed that a large band of
Chechen fighters, possibly including Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected Chechen president in 1997, was routed during a
major operation in Kurchaloi Raion southeast of Grozny on 2 May. Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Atsaev told Interfax
on 5 May that more than 200 Chechen police are still engaged in a hunt in the Kurchaloi, Gudermes, and Nozhai-Yurt
districts for a band of 30 Chechen fighters who launched an abortive attack on 1 May on a checkpoint in Alleroi, east of
Gudermes, manned jointly by Chechen police and members of pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmad-hadji Kadyrov's security
service. Other militants from Daghestan are reported to have participated in that attack. Kadyrov's son Ramzan, who
heads his father's security service, said on 3 May that eight Chechen fighters were killed during or after the 1
May attack. A spokesman for Kadyrov's security service, Artur Akhmadov, told Interfax on 5 May that he believes the
1 May attack was led by Akhmed Avtorkhanov, who heads Maskhadov's personal security detachment. Also on 5 May,
Ramzan Kadyrov said he believes Avtorkhanov has been badly wounded and is hiding out in a village in Gudermes Raion.
Akhmadov said on 4 May and again on 5 May that he has received intelligence reports that Maskhadov is also in the area
currently being searched. Ekho Moskvy, "Kommersant-Daily," RIA-Novosti, and other Russian media have reported
over the last week that the authorities have stepped up their efforts to capture Maskhadov in connection with President
Putin's 7 May inauguration. LF/RC Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty
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RUSSIA IN FACTS
