Russia paid millions for information leading to Chechen leader

MOSCOW -- Russia paid $10 million for information that helped it track down a Chechen rebel leader who was killed last week in a special forces operation, its security service said Tuesday.

The Federal Security Service also said it would offer the same reward for Shamil Basayev, the Chechen warlord who claimed responsibility for September's school hostage-taking in southern Russia that killed 330.

Basayev is now seen as the most powerful rebel figure following the death of rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, said to have been killed in a special forces operation in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt, in northern Chechnya.

The killing of Maskhadov, one of Russia's most-wanted men, was a victory for the security services, which have struggled to penetrate the tightly knit, clan society of Chechnya. Maskhadov and other rebel leaders appeared able to move about fairly freely in the region, where they boasted of a large network of collaborators.

The huge reward emphasized the Kremlin's determination to increasingly rely on the local population in its attempts to stop rebel warlords. Russia has pledged to protect informers, but it would be hard for them to avoid rebels' revenge in a region where people closely watch their neighbors.

The security service, the main successor agency to the KGB, said Tuesday it was prepared to help those who provided the information on Maskhadov by relocating them to another region in Russia or to a Muslim country.

It offered similar guarantees for informants on Basayev's whereabouts.

"The Russian Federal Security Service confirms its preparedness to guarantee personal security and payment of an appropriate monetary award to citizens providing trustworthy information on the whereabouts of the terrorist leaders," the service said in a statement.

Sergei Ignatchenko, a service spokesman, said his agency "guarantees the payment of a $10 million reward for information about Basayev's whereabouts."

Chechnya's Moscow-backed President Alu Alkhanov expressed certainty that Basayev would be caught soon. "I am confident that now Basayev will hardly be able to feel safe wherever he is hiding -- in any region, settlement, forest or in the mountains," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

The announcement of the reward came a day after authorities said they had blown up the house where Maskhadov was killed because they feared deadly booby traps. But human rights activists and government critics questioned the motives for a move that added to the secrecy shrouding last week's raid.

While federal authorities said Maskhadov had been hiding in the basement, a woman who lived in the house denied he had been there and said she suspected Russian forces may have brought him on Tuesday.

The popular Moskovsky Komsomolets daily speculated Tuesday that forces loyal to Chechen Deputy Prime Ramzan Kadyrov could have captured, interrogated and killed Maskhadov in another location before bringing his body to Tolstoy-Yurt.

It said it was highly unlikely that Maskhadov could have used the basement for shelter.

Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Russian columnist and expert on Chechnya, said the house was apparently blown up to destroy evidence. "There is nothing left now to question the official version of events," she said.

Alkhanov on Tuesday rejected reports questioning the official account of Maskhadov's killing.

Analysts have warned that the death of Maskhadov -- a former elected president of Chechnya seen as a relative moderate who had repeatedly called for peace negotiations -- made any political settlement in the southern territory unlikely and raised the specter of an increasingly religious conflict.