Maskhadov vows more Russian casualties

 

Russians injured in fighting: More such incidents are promised

In written remarks the president of Chechnya Aslan Maskhadov said his forces had planned a range of operations.

   

“For this summer and autumn we have a lot prepared,” he said.

“I do not think that the enemy will be able to remain, because the guerrillas are very determined.”

 

Maskhadov said the peace proposals put forward by the Russian president Vladimir Putin were aimed at winning public favour before parliamentary elections in December and his own bid next year to seek a second term in the Kremlin.

   

“I am not going to appeal to the Russian leadership, because it is senseless…Their heads are full of only one thing: The forthcoming elections,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, a spokesman for pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov on Sunday offered a huge reward to anyone who provided information leading to the arrest of Maskhadov.

Maskhadov is believed to hiding and commanding anti-Russian resistance inside Chechnya.

 

“He promised that whoever revealed (his) location…would get a reward sufficient for his children and his grandchildren as well,” a Kadyrov spokesman said.

 

Differences

 

Maskhadov was elected president in 1997, during Chechnya’s brief period of de facto independence before Moscow sent troops back into the region in 1999. 

He has regularly denounced more radical separatist fighters who turn themselves into human bombs in order to attack the enemy. 

 

Maskhadov confirmed that the separatists were split on the morality of such tactics. “The Chechen president does not lead people who blow up themselves and others,” he said. 

 

President Putin has refused to negotiate with Maskhadov. Instead, he has proposed a plan to end a decade of conflict by extending autonomy to Chechnya.

 

The Chechen president and his major field commanders have dismissed Putin’s plan.