Aslan Maskhadov

The death of Aslan Maskhadov, 53, a former elected president of Chechnya, in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt, a few kilometers north of Grozny, the Chechen capital, is viewed at the Kremlin as a coup for President Vladimir Putin's hard-line policies in the region.

Chechen separatists said that the death of Maskhadov, a comparative moderate, obliterated any hope of a negotiated end to the conflict and signaled that the killing could trigger revenge attacks.

Maskhadov's death leaves the warlord Shamil Basayev as the most prominent separatist leader.

Basayev claimed responsibility for the seizure of a school in Beslan in September during which 330 children and adults died, and is held responsible for the October 2002 Moscow theater siege that cost the lives of 130 hostages.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 19, 2005
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