Posted on 09/28/2002 2:06:22 PM PDT by HAL9000
MOSCOW, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Self-styled Chechen Foreign Minister Ilyas Akhmadov reportedly sought asylum in the United States Saturday, prompting Russian media to conclude that aides to Chechnya's rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov are leaving a "sinking ship."Interfax news agency quoted informed sources in Washington as saying that Akhmadov had applied to U.S. authorities for political asylum, but gave no other details.
A State Department spokesman in Washington said Saturday that the agency does not comment on asylum matters.
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Akhmadov's decision to "hide in the United States is rather indicative."
"Apparently, (the people in) Maskhadov's closest entourage are starting to realize that their terrorist cause is doomed," spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement Saturday.
The spokesman added that the Kremlin's steadfast campaign to eradicate roots of terrorism in Chechnya was bearing fruit.
"Maskhadov's self-styled 'government' finds it more and more difficult to portray that it is concerned about the fate of the Chechen people," Yakovenko said.
Akhmadov's reported decision to abandon the Maskhadov camp will certainly deal a heavy blow to the embattled rebel leader who, according to the Kremlin, now exerts authority over only a handful of Chechen and foreign-born, mostly Arab, warlords.
Akhmadov, 42, came into the spotlight in recent years as he traveled in Europe and the United States to promote the cause of Chechen independence.
His trips to Prague, Berlin and Washington annoyed Russia's Foreign Ministry, which lodged official protests, criticizing the Czech, German and U.S. governments for hosting Akhmadov.
A political scientist by training, Akhmadov presented what he called was a peace plan for Chechnya when he met in June 2000 with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the eve of former U.S. President Bill Clinton's Moscow summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Last year, Akhmadov drew the Kremlin's ire again when he briefed the State Department officials on the situation in Chechnya.
However, his visit was downplayed by the Kremlin spokesman on Chechnya Sergei Yastrzhembsky who said at the time that Akhmadov was free to travel wherever he liked as he was not included on Russia's wanted list.
"By the way, he hasn't lived in Russia since 1998," said Yastrzhembsky.
Today, Akhmadov's whereabouts remain unknown, but following his bid for asylum in the United States, he's least likely to return to Chechnya.
To some analysts, Akhmadov's defection may signal chaos in Maskhadov's camp, which means the separatist movement could further crumble.
In fall 1999, Moscow sent troops to the rebellious province to quell Chechen insurgents who invaded the neighboring province of Dagestan and overran several villages there.
The Kremlin also charged Chechen guerrillas with masterminding a string of deadly bombings of residential apartment buildings in Moscow and southern Russia in September 1999 that killed over 300 civilians.
Maskhadov and his aides fled the Chechen capital, Grozny, immediately after the Russian troops entered Chechnya in 1999, subsequently resorting to guerrilla warfare in the mountains.
After three years of fighting, federal troops maintain control over the greater part of Chechnya, but Chechen fighters still inflict casualties on a daily basis, staging ambushes and organizing blasts in public places.
Russia's liberals urge Putin to enter talks with the rebels in order to end the conflict and determine the future status of a breakaway province.
Putin has kept refusing to meet for talks with Maskhadov, whom he labeled a terrorist who lost the legitimacy as the Chechen people's leader after taking up arms against Russia's military.
Maskhadov was elected Chechen leader after the Russian troops withdrew in defeat following a 1994-96 military campaign aimed at crushing Chechnya's independence bid.
Copyright © 2002 United Press International
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