A group of Chechen businessmen have offered five million dollars for information that helps "neutralise" Shamil Basayev, the top rebel in Russia’s war-torn republic, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Monday. The announcement was made on television in Chechen capital Grozny by Ramzan Kadyrov, son of recently-elected president Akhmad Kadyrov and head of his father’s security service.
| Another hereditary president in the making? |
"The money will be paid immediately in any form," the news agency quoted Ramzan, as he is known throughout the republic, as saying. Ramzan also called on Chechnya’s residents to "not be afraid of the bandits," as the separatists are accurately called by the Russian military and the pro-Russian Chechen authorities, and to help authorities hunt them down. "The presidential security service is ready to pay 50,000 dollars for the head of (Aslan) Maskhadov," Kadyrov said.
| And well worth the price, we might add... |
Maskhadov was elected Chechnya’s president in 1997, but Moscow had branded him a "terrorist" at the beginning of the current war in 1999 and has refused to deal with him.
| That's because his bad boyz "kill people." |
Both he and Basayev, who both fought against Russian troops in Chechnya’s first war with Russia in the 1990s but fell out at the beginning of the second war, are believed to be hiding out in Chechnya’s mountains.
| And seem to have fallen in together again... |
Meanwhile, two 15-year-olds burned and injured their hands on Sunday while trying to lay a mine near the southern village of Shatoi, ITAR-TASS reported.
| What does that have to do with the rest of the story? |
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