--POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR RUSSIAN PULLOUT AND U.N. PEACEKEEPERS The Caucasus Times reported on March 21 that in a poll of Grozny residents conducted in partnership with Prague Watchdog over March 11-15, 43% of respondents said "the withdrawal of the Russian military from Chechnya" would... MORE

Press reports and official statements concerning the circumstances of Aslan Maskhadov's death, far from clearing things up, made them even murkier. In his May 8, Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus, said the rebel leader had been killed when security... MORE

The location of Maskhadov's body also remains a source of controversy. Following the announcement of Maskhadov's death, Ramzan Kadyrov said the body should be turned over to Maskhadov's relatives but Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the federal forces in Chechnya, said it would not be turned... MORE

Some of the sharpest criticism of the killing of Aslan Maskhadov came from politicians and Chechen refugees in Georgia. Koba Davitashvili, leader of Georgia's "Association of National Forces – Conservatives" opposition party, called Maskhadov's killing "an act of state terrorism on the part of Russia."... MORE

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,"... MORE

The killing of Aslan Maskhadov was the cause of a diplomatic dust-up between Poland and Russia. On March 9, the day after the Russian authorities announced that the Chechen rebel leader had been killed, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Checko stated, as quoted by Reuters:... MORE

The French journalist Sophie Shihab, who has covered Chechnya for years and visited it clandestinely a number of times, wrote in Le Monde on March 10 that both the Kremlin and radical Islamists were ecstatic over the killing of Aslan Maskhadov. "Whether the people of... MORE

There were also eulogies for Aslan Maskhadov from leading Russian and international human rights activists and intellectuals. Veteran Russian human rights activist Aleksandr Podrabinek said that Maskhadov was the Kremlin's biggest problem in Chechnya. "Much bigger than the field commanders who had turned to the... MORE

Western news agencies reported on March 15 that two militants who were holed up in a house in the town of Khasavyurt managed to escape despite the fact that they were surrounded by hundreds of security forces and armored vehicles and that the house they... MORE

Following the death of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, a statement was posted on the rebel website Kavkazcenter on March 9 by Shamil Basayev announcing the appointment of his successor. The statement named him as "Abdul Khalim" and his identity as the new rebel president was... MORE