Shamil Basayev

Chief of Staff Gen. Yury Baluyevsky said ominously that Russia will not revert to the use of its massive nuclear arsenal to fight terrorism in a comment that perplexed some observers.

"Military steps are an extreme measure in the fight against terrorism," Baluyevsky said after talks with U.S. Gen. James Jones, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe.

"Our position on pre-emptive strikes has been stated before, but I will repeat it. We will take steps to liquidate terror bases in any region -- but this does not mean that we will resort to the use of nuclear force," he said.

On Sept. 8, Russia's Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet KGB, offered a reward of 300 million rubles ($10.3 million) for information that could help "neutralize" Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov. The two have been accused of masterminding the Sept. 1 attack on a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, in which 326 hostages died and more than 700 were injured.

The Japan Times Weekly: Sept. 18, 2004
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