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Chechen VP killed
The former vice-president of the self-styled Chechen republic of Ichkeria, Vakha Arsanov, was killed during a security raid, the press service of the president of the Chechen Republic has told the Interfax news agency.Vakha Arsanov was killed in Chechnya, the deputy interior minister in the pro-Moscow republican government, Sultan Satuyev, told Interfax. The rebel was killed during a security raid in the village of Ivanov. Four militants were killed in the clash. One of them was later identified as Vakha Arsanov. Arsanov was first declared killed in the year 2000. Then the separatists immediately refuted the report of the Russian military. Vakha Arsanov ran on the same ticket as Aslan Maskhadov, and the two won Chechnya's presidential election in January 1997 as Chechnya was beginning to enjoy a brief period of de-facto independence from Moscow. Arsanov, a former Soviet traffic police officer, commanded a unit during the first 1994-96 Chechen war but chose not to fight when Moscow sent troops into Chechnya for the second campaign in 1999. Maskhadov fired Arsanov as vice president in January 2001 for not fighting federal troops. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-05-17 |
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