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The leader of the people known almost universally in the Western press as Chechen "independence fighters," Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris (Shamil Basayev), has issued an appraisal of the last year of jihad in Chechnya. His statement, "Nothing Can Stop This Jihad," can be found at the Muslim Kavkaz Center site (with thanks to Nicolei). Here are some excerpts that offer an insight into the motives and goals of jihadists around the world — motives and goals identical to those I explicated in Onward Muslim Soldiers: In the name of God, Most Benevolent, Most Merciful! (Bismillah Rahman Rahim!) Praise Allah, the Lord...

Make Comment View Comments Printable Article Email Article Font 6pt 7pt 8pt 9pt 10pt 11pt 12pt 13pt 14pt 15pt 16pt 17pt 18pt 19pt 20pt Jihad Declared in Chechnya By Robert Spencer FrontPageMagazine.com | March 16, 2005 Stop the presses: Islamic forces in Chechnya have declared jihad! The cause, explains jihadist spokesman Movladi Udugov, was the killing last week of former Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov in a Russian raid. “By killing Maskhadov,” Udugov fulminated, “the Kremlin has killed the last illusion of those Chechens who, despite everything, still believed in so-called ‘international law’ and a civilized form of dealing with the...

Influential militant killed by Basayev's order, Chechen police say18.09.2005, 00.17 GROZNY, September 18 (Itar-Tass) - Chechnya's First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, who supervises law-enforcement bodies, said influential field commander Akhmed Avdorkhanov had been killed. Avdorkhanov was killed by the order of terrorist Shamil Basayev, Kadyrov said in a statement on Saturday, because they quarreled over "a 1.5-million-dollar fund that had come to militants from their foreign sponsors." "Basayev killed him because he wanted to take all the money," he added. Avdorkhanov was chief of guards of militants' leader Aslan Maskhadov, destroyed in an operation by federal forces in the...

GROZNY, March 24 (RIA Novosti) - Alvi Tosuyev, Maskhadov's closest assistant, has been killed in Chechnya, the joint press center of the Russian Interior Ministry reports. "Tosuyev was killed in Berdikel (Komsomolskoye), outside Grozny," the press center reports. Tosuyev was Maskhadov's personal bodyguard, and previously was the closest associate of Arab mercenary Abu Al-Walid who was also killed in Chechnya. "Tosuyev known as Assad masterminded the terrorist attack against Kadyrov, the first vice premier of Chechnya," the press center said.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Russia faces renewed attacks from Chechen rebels after its security forces killed moderate leader Aslan Maskhadov, guerrilla warlord Shamil Basayev has warned in an interview published by Swedish TT news agency. Basayev, blamed by Moscow for a series of bloody strikes against civilian targets including last September's Beslan school massacre, said he was no longer bound by a commitment to peace he had given former Chechen leader Maskhadov. Russian security forces killed Maskhadov on March 8. "Nobody can prevent me from responding to violence with violence," TT quoted Basayev as saying in written replies to questions...

The killing of Chechen spiritual and political leader Aslan Maskhadov by Russian forces has been presented to the West as a triumph in the Global War Against Terror. Foreigners who understand little of the Caucasian Muslims and their causes and struggles -- meaning just about everybody else in the world, including the majority of Russians -- may be taken in by such claims. Maskhadov was reported dead on Tuesday, March 8, following action by Russian agents in a Chechen town with the evocative name, as will become clear, of Tolstoy-Yurt. Although the full details of his death have yet to...

BALTIC STATES CONDEMN KILLING Deputies in the parliaments of Estonia and Lithuania condemned the killing of Aslan Maskhadov. Andres Herkel, a member of the Pro Patria Union party, said that in eliminating the rebel leader, "Russia lost the last hope for resolving the conflict in Chechnya by peaceful means," Rosbalt reported on March 9. Herkel, who is also heads the "For Human Rights in Chechnya" group in Estonia's parliament, which has called on Russia to negotiate with Maskhadov, said that the slain rebel leader was Chechnya's "national leader" and that his murder was on par with the assassinations of Chechen...

Stop the presses: Islamic forces in Chechnya have declared jihad! The cause, explains jihadist spokesman Movladi Udugov, was the killing last week of former Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov in a Russian raid. "By killing Maskhadov," Udugov fulminated, "the Kremlin has killed the last illusion of those Chechens who, despite everything, still believed in so-called 'international law' and a civilized form of dealing with the current terrorist regime in Moscow…We ask God to accept the holy war of...Aslan Maskhadov!" Western observers may be forgiven for finding this puzzling. Maskhadov was a mastermind of the Beslan school massacre, in which Chechen jihadists...

Soldiers’ Mothers Urge Russia to Give Maskhadov’s Body to Relatives Created: 16.03.2005 11:00 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:00 MSK, 14 hours 28 minutes ago MosNews A Russian human rights organization, the Union of Soldiers’ Mothers Committees, has said the body of the killed Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov should be handed over to his relatives. The Russian authorities do not plan to hand over the body, saying Maskhadov was a terrorist. According to a recently approved law, the bodies of killed terrorists do not have to be handed over to their relatives. The organization’s executive secretary, Valentina Melnikova, was quoted...

One day after the death of Aslan Maskhadov, a little-known Chechen cleric from Argun, Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, became the new leader of Ichkeria. Sadulayev openly condones terrorism and murder as legitimate methods in the conduct of jihad. Maskhadov's very existence was the last obstacle preventing the war for Chechen independence from turning into a Wahhabi revolution in the North Caucasus. Moscow has removed that obstacle.

Maskhadov to be bried in anonymous grave: [World News]: Moscow, Mar 9 : Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, the suspected mastermind of the Beslan school hostage crisis who was killed in a security operation by Russian commandoes, will be buried in an anonymous grave. "Maskhadov's body will not be handed over to his relatives, nor will they be notified about the place and date of his burial," Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel was quoted as saying by Interfax. "The (anti-terrorism) law does not provide for handing over the bodies of terrorists to their relatives," Shepel said. It would take...

Whatever Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov may have been in 1995 or 1997, he was a terrorist on the day he died. As compared to a monster like Chechen commander Shamil Basayev, Maskhadov might have been described as a "moderate" up to 1998. In January 1997, he became the first and last legitimately elected president of Chechnya. However, his incapacity to cope with pressures endemic to Chechen society led to his drift toward radicalism beginning in the latter part of that year. In 1999, he disbanded the Chechen parliament and abolished the same Chechen constitution that legitimized his presidency, replacing...

Whatever Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov may have been in 1995 or 1997, he was a terrorist on the day he died. As compared to a monster like Chechen commander Shamil Basayev, Maskhadov might have been described as a "moderate" up to 1998. In January 1997, he became the first and last legitimately elected president of Chechnya. However, his incapacity to cope with pressures endemic to Chechen society led to his drift toward radicalism beginning in the latter part of that year.

When I first heard that Aslan Maskhadov--the former president of the self-proclaimed separatist Republic of Chechnya and the nominal head of the separatist insurgency--was killed by the Russian Special Forces, my reaction was quite a mixed one. On the one hand, I agree that he was probably the last separatist with whom Moscow could have struck a deal acceptable to both Russia and Chechnya. With all his faults, he was a democratically elected leader of the breakaway Russian Republic. Also I have a deep anger at the Kremlin thugs for starting twice in the past decade despicably savage, barbaric and...

The Chechens' American friends The Washington neocons' commitment to the war on terror evaporates in Chechnya, whose cause they have made their own John Laughland Wednesday September 8, 2004 The Guardian An enormous head of steam has built up behind the view that President Putin is somehow the main culprit in the grisly events in North Ossetia. Soundbites and headlines such as "Grief turns to anger", "Harsh words for government", and "Criticism mounting against Putin" have abounded, while TV and radio correspondents in Beslan have been pressed on air to say that the people there blame Moscow as much as...

MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti) - Utterances by the press secretary of the Polish Foreign Ministry do not reflect the official position of Warsaw on the destruction of the leader of Chechen separatists, Aslan Maskhadov. Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld said this in the telephone conversation on Friday with his Russian analog Sergei Lavrov. "The Polish foreign minister expressed regret in connection with the utterances by the press secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Poland, which, he said, do not reflect the official position of Warsaw on this question", reads the communique of the Russian Foreign Ministry. The telephone conversation...

RUSSIA: Chechen Rebel Losses Increase March 10, 2005: In southern Russia, police in Dagestan arrested two aides to Chechen terrorist chief Shamil Basayev. The growing hostility of Chechens to the rebels and terrorists has forced many of the Chechen terrorists to move their bases to places like Dagestan, which border Chechnya, and contain Chechen populations which have not grown weary of supporting terrorism (and being caught in the middle of the subsequent battles.) The number of Chechen terrorists continues to shrink, as does the number of attacks they can make. But, like earlier outbreaks of Chechen violence (going back over...

Little-known Chechen cleric Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev will take over as interim rebel leader after Aslan Maskhadov's death earlier this week, rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev said Thursday. Analysts said, however, that the announcement was probably an attempt by radical warlord Shamil Basayev to buy time as he figures out his next move. The Federal Security Service announced Tuesday that Maskhadov had been killed that day in a bunker during an FSB sweep in Tolstoy-Yurt, a village near Grozny. Zakayev, who served as Maskhadov's representative and lives in exile in London, called on all rebels to line up behind Sadulayev, a Wahhabi born...

MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti political commentator Yury Filippov) "The international terrorist and bandit formation leader, Maskhadov, has been killed." This is how Nikolai Patrushev, the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), chose to phrase his report to President Putin on Aslan Maskhadov's death in Chechnya. Leading Russian politicians and the majority of media sources described Maskhadov in similar terms, such as "the terrorist leader," "a terrorist on an international scale" and "a source of evil." In the past three years, Maskhadov, the former president of the self-proclaimed republic of Ichkeria, compromised himself so much with his links to international terrorism...

MOSCOW, March 9 (RIA Novosti) - A set of special arrangements by Russian secret services in the North Caucasus preceded the elimination of Chechen terrorist leader Aslan Maskhadov, a source in Russian secret anti-terrorist structures informed RIA Novosti on Wednesday. "During the past few weeks a set of special operations was conducted in Chechnya and a number of constituent members of the Russian Federation to locate Chechen terrorist leaders and emissaries of the Al Qaeda international terrorist organization," the interlocutor said on condition of anonymity. According to the source, the final stage of the operations involved considerable special task forces...

Aslan Maskhadov was killed in Chechnya. He was killed by the FSB's special forces, despite Deputy Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov's repeated assurances that he was about catch Maskhadov any day now. This makes sense: Chechens don't kill other Chechens to help out the Russians.

Chechen leader killed in raid CHRIS STEPHEN IN MOSCOW CHECHEN rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov, has been killed during a dramatic raid on his hide-out by Russian special forces. Russian television showed the body of the former Chechen president lying on his back with his combat shirt open and his eyes open, shortly after the raid. Confirmation of his death came in dramatic fashion with a hastily arranged television interview between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the head of the secret service, the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev. Mr Patrushev, speaking across a small table, told Mr Putin about the raid, and...

"Killing Aslan Maskhadov was Russia's mistake" claims Polish Foreign Minister 2005-03-09, 12:46 "Killing Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov by Russian security forces was a political mistake", claims Poland's foreign minister Adam Rotfeld. In his opinion, Maskhadov was the only partner for Russia, with whom a ceasefire and peace in Chechnya could be negotiated. The head of the Polish diplomacy has not, however, ruled out Moscow's intention to close the doors to dialogue with the Chechens by shooting their leader. The 53-year-old Maskhadov, who had battled Russian troops in North Caucasus for more than a decade, was killed in a village...

FSB special forces officers killed Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov in a special operation in the Chechen village Tolstoy-Yurt, Federal Security Service director Nikolai Patrushev told President Vladimir Putin in televised remarks Tuesday night. Moscow-backed Deputy Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov called Maskhadov's death a gift for all Chechen women on the Women's Day holiday Tuesday, while Maskhadov envoy Akhmed Zakayev and fierce Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky warned that Moscow might have lost its only chance to bring peace to Chechnya. The federal military headquarters for the North Caucasus confirmed that Maskhadov was dead, but the circumstances surrounding his death...

Tuesday 08 March 2005, 19:42 Makka Time, 16:42 GMT Maskhadov said he had tried to end the Beslan siege peacefully The Chechen deputy prime minister has confirmed to Aljazeera that separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov has been killed by Russian troops. Russian media had earlier reported on Tuesday that ousted Chechen President Maskhadov had been killed by troops in Chechnya. Interfax news agency quoted army spokesman Ilya Shabalkin as saying Maskhadov had been killed by Russian troops. Russian television stations aired pictures of a bearded corpse they said were of Maskhadov. His death would mark a major success for President Vladimir...

GROZNY. March 9 (Interfax) - Now that Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov has been killed, the republic's presidential security service will focus on an operation aimed at detaining terrorist Shamil Basayev, Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov told Interfax. "The elimination of Aslan Maskhadov will accelerate the process of establishing the whereabouts of Basayev and detaining him. Now we can pay twice as much attention to this problem, as previously we had to work in several directions," Kadyrov said. Basayev is extremely dangerous to society, and "terrorism is his way of living and his way of thinking. In...

MOSCOW, March 8 - Russian special forces killed the leader of Chechnya's separatists in a raid today that gave the Kremlin a rare victory in a bloody war that has killed tens of thousands and spawned a wave of terrorist attacks across Russia in recent years. The slain separatist, Aslan Maskhadov, who from hiding led thousands of fighters following Russia's second invasion of the republic in 1999, died in a bunker beneath a house in an outwardly peaceful village, Tolstoy Yurt, only 12 miles from the region's capital, Grozny, according to Russian officials and news accounts. His death is akin...

Aslan Maskhadov is destroyed TERRIBLE, 8 mar - RIA of "News". In the Chechen Republic Aslan Maskhadov is destroyed, the representative of a regional staff on management of counterterrorist operation (ROSH) on Northern Caucasus Ilya Shabalkin informed RIA of "News". As he said, during the special action which have been lead on Tuesday by special troops of FSB of Russia in settlement Thick - JUrt, the leader bovikov Aslan Maskhadov is destroyed. As RIA of "News" Ilya Shabalkin earlier informed, in last two day in Vedenskom and areas Nozhaj-Jurtovskom of the Chechen Republic special action is carried out. As...

Russian forces say Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has been killed. Russian television showed pictures of a body resembling that of Mr Maskhadov, 53, in a pool of blood in Chechnya. But President Vladimir Putin has asked for further identification. Chechens have not confirmed the death, which a spokesman said was likely to be true. The spokesman said Chechnya's war of independence would not be affected by the death of Mr Maskhadov - the most moderate of Chechen rebel commanders. [snip]---------- Mr Maskhadov was elected Chechen president in January 1997 but was ousted two years later. Thousands of people -...

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) -- A spokesman for Russian forces says Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has been killed. (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV 03-08-05 1028EST

Is killed In the Chechen Republic the nearest colleague A.Mashadova Today in area Urus-Martanovskom of the Chechen Republic one of Aslan Maskhadov's the nearest colleagues, field commander Arbi Alamatov is killed, the information of radio station " Freedom ", referring on republican power structures is those. On Thursday the private house in settlement Alhazurovo where was Alamatov in the morning has been surrounded. It has been killed after 40-minute fight. In area Groznenskom of the Chechen Republic the military motorcade is fired. Are wounded seven person. Anybody from employees of law enforcement bodies has not suffered. Employees of militia...

NALCHIK, February 20 (Itar-Tass) - The gunmen, killed in Nalchik on Sunday, were members of armed gangs, subordinated to Basayev and Maskhadov, Russian Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Yedelev told reporters on Sunday. According to deputy minister, they are members of the Karachayevo-Cherkess jamaat and were on the federal Wanted List for committing terror acts in the Rostov Region and Stavropol Territory and were hatching new terror acts. In Yedelev’s words, new methods were used during the special operation: officially permitted Cheremukha-7 gas was used to neutralize the bandits who entrenched themselves in an apartment. “Gunmen suffered a serious blow”...

Chechen rebels have been fighting for more than a decade "Chechen separatist leaders have ordered a ceasefire for the month of February, a pro-rebel website reports. The Kavkaz Centre site said that Aslan Maskhadov, the former elected president of Chechnya, and warlord Shamil Basayev had ordered the ceasefire. It said all offensive actions were to be halted "as a display of goodwill". Moscow has not responded to the news. It has put millions of dollars on the heads of both men, whom it blames for atrocities like the Beslan siege. "We do not react to Kavkazcenter. This is not an...

Almost a month ago, Chechen rebels sent an open letter to the European Parliament complaining that Russians/pro Russian Chechens have kidnapped Maskhadov's relatives: Last week, Russian special services and criminal gangs, supported by the Kremlin and led by the notorious Chechen Kvisling, Kadyrov the younger, took as hostage in Grozny and other cities and villages the family of the President of the Chechen Republic Aslan Maskhadov. Among them are his brothers Lechi Maskhadov, 76 years old, Lyema Maskhadov, 68 years old, his sister Dzhovzhan Abdu1kadyrova (Maskhadova), 69 years old, and also two cousins: Adam Reshiev, 60 years old, and lkhvan...

GROZNY, November 23 (RIA Novosti) - A large-scale terrorist attack was averted in Ingushetia, a republic neighboring Chechnya. The attack was ordered by Chechen separatist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, spokesman for the North Caucasus antiterrorism headquarters Ilya Shabalkin said Tuesday. "Operatives from the republic's FSB and Interior Ministry obtained information that terrorists under Maskhadov and Basayev's command were preparing a new large terrorist attack in Ingushetia," Mr. Shabalkin said. He said that according to the plan, during a provocation, bandits wearing Russian solider uniforms would attack several public buildings and apartment houses with 120mm mortar and several large-caliber...

CHECHEN WARLORD WARNS OF NEW TERRORIST ATTACKS. Since masterminding the hostage-taking in the south Russian town of Budennovsk in the summer of 1995, radical Chechen field commander Shamil Basaev has claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist acts that have claimed hundreds of Russian lives. His ill-fated incursion into Daghestan in August 1999 in the wake of an unsuccessful attempt to sideline Chechen President Aslan Maskahdov served as the rationale for the Russian leadership to launch its second war against Chechnya in October of that year under the pretext of combating terrorism. Yet although Basaev is routinely reviled by leading...

GROZNY, Russia - Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov is ready to give up his separatist fight and is seeking a way to negotiate with the Kremlin on his surrender, a top Chechen security official said Friday. Maskhadov, a former Chechen president, is trying to make contact with the federal government, said Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya (news - web sites)'s first deputy prime minister. He said Maskhadov wants "to hold negotiations on how to disarm and surrender to the authorities." At the same time, Kadyrov, who also leads a regional security force, said he would do all he can to capture Maskhadov...

October 23, 2004 Chechen Rebel Leader Is Reported to Be Close to Surrendering By C. J. CHIVERS MOSCOW, Oct. 22 - The senior law enforcement official in Chechnya announced Friday that the authorities had nearly captured Aslan Maskhadov, one of the best-known leaders of the Chechen resistance, and that Mr. Maskhadov was planning to surrender soon. The announcement, made by the first deputy prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, in Grozny, the Chechen capital, underscored the sense of urgency driving the hunts for senior separatists. It also exposed the tension among the Russian security agencies conducting them. Mr. Kadyrov, the outspoken leader...

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov supported the U.S.-led coalition's intervention into Iraq.

GROZNY, SEPTEMBER 24, (RIA Novosti) - Federal forces, who are conducting some local special operations in several Chechen districts, want to flush out and liquidate terrorist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, as well as rank-and-file bandits. This was disclosed to RIA Novosti here today at the regional command center for supervising the North Caucasian counter-terrorist operation. According to the center's spokesperson, four bandits have been killed during a special operation, which got underway in the evening of September 23 near Mairtup village, and which still continues. Two thugs were killed in the vicinity of Alleroi village. Both of...

By turns, Shamil Basayev has been an Islamist terrorist in the murderous mold of Osama bin Laden, a top candidate for the presidency of Chechnya and the Chechen prime minister. Now he is back in his Osama bin Laden mode. As Americans debate future foreign policy--in an era when terrorism is the greatest threat--we would do well to study the Russian experience with Basayev. It raises the question: Will promoting democracy in remote lands be effective in defending America against terrorists? Basayev took credit last week for the hostage-taking raid on the school in Beslan, Russia. He also claimed responsibility...

The West sets shahids on Russia Shortly before the last acts of terrorism, Russia was warned that it would have troubles if Moscow will not hand over Caucasus to the western powers. We have already got used to that the western mass media and policies are sympathetic to the insurgents attacking Russia ostensibly struggling for independence of the Chechen Republic. There is nothing new that the European and American mass-media only casually mention innocent victims of attacks of terrorists and are interested only in telling about sufferings of shahids and their just revenge. Thus they actually paint themselves as instigators...

Aslan Maskhadov expressed his support of the United States and Great Britain, whose efforts are directed toward the overthrow of a "cruel dictator", but called on Washington and the international coalition after their urgent undertakings, to resolve the Russian-Chechnyan conflict. This information was published by one of the Chechyan separatist agencies. Chief the so-called political department of the ministry of foreign affairs of the unacknowledged republic of Ichkeriya Roman Halilov stated to the ANSA agency that "the war in Iraq raises many questions, but one can be expressed with the confidence: Saddam is a cruel dictator... and the international community...

Zakaïev required the political asylum in London, according to one of its partisans Friday December 06, 2002 - 6h59 GMT MOSCOW, 6 déc (AFP) - Akhmed Zakaïev, the emissary of the independence president tchetchene Aslan Maskhadov, arrived to Great Britain where it asked the political asylum Friday morning, one of its partisans indicated to the radio operator Echo of Moscow. Zakaïev was briefly held on its arrival in an airport of London but given in freedom after payment of a guarantee by the actress Vanessa Redgrave, specified with radio operator Alexander Goldfarb, head of the Funds for civil freedoms...

The emissary of the president Maskhadov stopped(arrested) in Copenhagen On Wednesday, October 30th, 2002 - 6:32 am GMT COPENHAGEN, 30 oct (AFP) - The emissary of the Chechen independent president Aslan Maskhadov, Akhmed Zakaïev, was stopped(arrested) during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in Copenhagen by the Danish police at the request of the Russian authorities, announced the police in a communiqué. He(It) is soupconné by Russia to be one from the planificateurs of the taking of hostages to the théatre of Moscow and to have participated in several terrorist actions, according to the Danish chain(channel) TV2. The Russian...

MOSCOW, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Self-styled Chechen Foreign Minister Ilyas Akhmadov reportedly sought asylum in the United States Saturday, prompting Russian media to conclude that aides to Chechnya's rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov are leaving a "sinking ship." Interfax news agency quoted informed sources in Washington as saying that Akhmadov had applied to U.S. authorities for political asylum, but gave no other details. A State Department spokesman in Washington said Saturday that the agency does not comment on asylum matters. A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Akhmadov's decision to "hide in the United States is rather indicative." "Apparently,...

05.09.2002 12:46:04 Maskhadov may be dead - Deputy Interior Minister Tikhomirov MOSCOW. Sept 5 (Interfax) - Aslan Maskhadov may be dead, but one should not jump to any final conclusions, Russian Deputy Interior Minister and Interior Troops Commander-in-Chief Col. Gen. Vyacheslav Tikhomirov told the press in Moscow on Thursday. "There is no smoke without fire, but let us wait for a legal confirmation," he said. "The Interior Ministry is guided by facts, and it is not our business to make wild guesses. If the death of Maskhadov is confirmed, Russia will be the first to learn about it," he...