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| Caucasus |
| Russia captures Kadyrov assassins |
| 2004-06-10 |
| Authorities have detained two suspects in last month’s killing of Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, a prosecutor said Thursday. Allies of the assassinated leader, meanwhile, chose their candidate to replace him in an election this summer. Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky said the two detainees ``participated in preparing and carrying out the explosion’’ that killed Kadyrov and five other people at a stadium in Chechnya’s capital of Grozny on May 9, the Interfax news agency reported. Fridinsky claimed that the suspects, residents of Chechnya who were aged 28 and 22, had admitted involvement, Interfax reported. An aide to Fridinsky, Vladimir Rudyak, confirmed the detentions. Prosecutors have said the circumstances of the bombing suggested it was an inside job that could have included someone from Kadyrov’s own security detail. They said the explosive had been planted under the VIP section at the stadium and had escaped the attention of security forces who swept the site beforehand. A new presidential election is scheduled for Aug. 29, and Kadyrov’s allies - including his influential son, Ramzan Kadyrov, who headed his security force and is now Chechnya’s first deputy prime minister - informally chose Alu Alkhanov, the region’s top police official, as their candidate, according to Russian news reports. ``Kadyrov always had hope in Alkhanov, that he would establish order in Chechnya, and he always declared that everything should be put in the hands of the Chechen police,’’ Ramzan Kadyrov, who at 27 is too young for the presidency, said on NTV television. ``And since he’s the head of the police, we think he will establish order.’’ Chechnya’s ethnic Russian acting president, Sergei Abramov, seemed to signal Kremlin support for Alkhanov’s nomination, telling NTV he is ``a worthy person, a true Chechen and a professional leader.’’ Interfax quoted Chechen State Council head Taus Dzhabrailov as saying Akhmad Kadyrov’s allies would support Alkhanov if he agreed to run. Alkhanov, 47, opposed Chechnya’s fight for independence in the mid-1990s and has countered the rebels in the war that broke out after Russian forces entered Chechnya in 1999, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. He had been chief of the transport police in Grozny since 2000 before being named interior minister in April 2003, it said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |