Chechnya’s rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov said on Tuesday he had enough men and firepower to fight Russian forces for another 20 years and issued a death threat to the region’s likely next president.
But his defiance met a swift rebuff from Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov, whose Kremlin backing makes him a sure winner of next month’s poll to replace the region’s assassinated president.
| "Let's make it a race. You see if you can kill me first, and I'll see if I can kill you first. Winner gets to be president!" |
In an interview published on a Chechen rebel Web site, Maskhadov said any Kremlin-backed leader faced an early death. "Whoever occupies this puppet’s chair -- his days are numbered. He’ll be in power only until the arm of the Mujahideen reach him," he said in an interview on www.kavkazcenter.com. Whoever wins, "his end will be the same if he comes to power with a Russian constitution and policy," he added.
| "Don't bother me! I'm feelin' my oats!" |
But the pro-Moscow Alkhanov told reporters he was used to being on the rebels’ hit-list."They have wanted to kill me since 1991," he said. "We have a good Russian saying: if you’re frightened of the woods, don’t go in."
| "I ain't scared of nobody named 'Aslan.' What the hell kind of name is 'Aslan'? Makes me think of butt cheeks!" |
He [Aslan] said his fighters’ work was far from over. "There are sufficient forces ... to fight for another 20 years without us over-exerting ourselves," he said. "We must force out Russians from our country. This is our duty. There should be no ’elections’. The people know this." The August 29 election was called after Kadyrov’s death and Russia’s military command in the region is on heightened alert for the possibility of attacks aimed at disrupting it. "The rebels’ aim is to frighten the civilian population, to destabilise the situation and disrupt the election," military spokesman Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax news agency. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000 talking tough on crushing the rebels, has taken a no-negotiation attitude in dealings with Maskhadov, the elected president of Chechnya during a period of de facto independence in the 1990s. Maskhadov has offered Moscow talks on condition it withdraws it troops -- a proposal scorned by Alkhanov. "Even if we said today we want to have talks with him, he would never do it. Not with us, not with anyone," he said.
Ingushetia’s pro-Moscow president, Murat Zyazikov, said he would welcome any talks to end the conflict that has spread to his own region which, like Chechnya, is mainly Muslim. "I would support any dialogue within Chechnya that will bring peace, accord and stability," he told reporters in Moscow. Zyazikov, whose tough stand against suspected rebel sympathisers has been blamed by many for last month’s raid, called for a tightening of security to prevent further attacks. "There are attempts to push this over into Ingushetia, but we are fighting against it," he said. |