Staged?

At chechnya-sl, Marius has translated part of a new lenta.ru article about a report in Russian Newsweek on the killing of Aslan Maskhadov:

http://www.lenta.ru/news/2005/03/14/maskhadov/

(my quick tr) Russian Newsweek: Liquidation of Maskhadov was a stage act.

Elimination of Aslan Maskhadov by the FSB Spetsnaz in the settlement of Tolstoy-Yurt was possibly a stage act (enactment) [instsenirovka]. Russian Newsweek correspondents were at the place of the alleged[http://www.runewsweek.ru/rubrics/?rubric=country&rid=103] killing of the leader of Chechen separatists and talked to the eyewitnesses of this special operation.

Thus, according to Yakha Yusupova, the wife of the owner of the house where Maskadov was allegedly killed, only his bodyguard Ilyas Iliskhanov stayed with them, an he is actually their distant relative.She notes that in no way four adult men could stay in the basement. Officially it was reported that three more people were located together with Maskhadov.

The majority of the inhabitants of the settlement of Tolstoy-Yurt are also convinced that Maskadov's body was "tossed up -brought in"-the periodical writes. According to them, they always have been inopposition to the authority in Grozny - during Dudayev andMaskadov's lifetime. Half of the inhabitants of this village - arerelatives of Ruslan Khasbulatov. Umar Avturkhanov, the initiator of march on Grozny in November 1994, from which began the first Chechencampaign, was born there.

Meanwhile one of the employees of the republic's MVD described to the correspondents of the periodical, that the whole thing that occurred in the village was staged. According to him, Maskhadov died on 5March, as his kidneys failed, damaged because of his staying in mountains in winte. According to this theory, the people from Maskhadov's entourage were moving his body into his native settlement of Zebir-Yurt, which is located on other shore of the Terek from Tolstoy-Yurt.

Then on Sunday, a group headed by Kadyrov went to capture Maskhadov. In the course of a brief battle they killed the leader of the separatists and several of his guards. However, after conducting the operation, Kadyrov decided not to take the killing of Maskhadov on himself and reported its results to the federals.Since Maskhadov's murder can bring on a Chechen an "eternal disgrace", the vice- premier of the government of Chechnya asked federal special services to take the responsibility for the operation and its results.

One of the agents of the Chechen special services confirmed this version to the correspondents of Russian Newsweek. In his opinion, the federal forces specially took the operation on themselves in order to take blood vengeance away from Ramzan Kadyrov.