Russian military sources told AP on 27-29 April that 24 Russian soldiers had been killed by pro-independence Chechen fighters during those three days, even though Interfax said on 28 April that only 10 Russian soldiers had been killed during the entire week.

Meanwhile, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov issued an ultimatum for Russian troops to withdraw from the republic, the "Chechen Press" website reported on 27 April. And an article in Moscow's "Ekspert," No. 16, said that "the situation in Chechnya remains critical," with the Kremlin having proved unable to show Chechens why they should shift their loyalties to Moscow. The paper said that Russian officers, "just like Chechen field commanders, love money and respect force rather than the law."

London's "Independent" on 28 April provided an example: Some Russian soldiers are now selling Chechen corpses to relatives of the dead for as much as $3,000.

RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 83, Part I, 30 April 2001
Copyright (c) 2001 RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.

MOSCOW SAID PLANNING TO DECLARE CHECHEN WAR OVER
30 April 2001

According to an article in the 27 April "Moskovskii Komsomolets," the Russian government intends to announce the end of its "counterterrorism operation" in Chechnya on 15 May. Lending credence to that report was a statement by Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Nikolai Patrushev on the same day that the situation in Chechnya is "stable" and that the security services can "neutralize key rebel leaders without [significant] losses." Also pointing in that direction was a statement on ORT on 27 April by Stanislav Ilyasov, the head of the pro-Moscow Chechen government that his cabinet is in "full command of the entire territory of the republic including its mountainous regions," ITAR-TASS reported.

Meanwhile, presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembskii said on that date that there are no possibilities for "a second Khasavurt," a negotiated settlement between Moscow and the pro-independence Chechens.

RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 83, Part I, 30 April 2001
Copyright (c) 2001 RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.