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Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that he wanted to see documentary evidence from Dubai police that Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev was assassinated there last month. Lavrov, breaking nearly two weeks of government silence about Yamadayev's death, said Moscow is waiting to receive "any kind of official report" from the United Arab Emirates that Yamadayev was killed, RIA-Novosti reported. "We are counting on our partners in the emirates do this quickly," Lavrov told reporters on a flight from Turkmenistan to Moscow. Yamadayev's brother Isa denied last week that Sulim was killed in the attack and said he was recovering in...

The Russian authorities have confirmed a prominent opponent of the pro-Kremlin Chechen President, Ramzan Kadyrov, was shot dead in Dubai on Saturday. Diplomats said Sulim Yamadayev's body had been identified by his relatives. Mr Yamadayev fell out with Mr Kadyrov last year and was sacked as commander of an elite security forces battalion.

GUDERMES, Russia (Reuters) - A Chechen warlord on Thursday accused the Russian region's pro-Kremlin leader of killing his brother and vowed to take revenge, pitching the two most powerful men in Chechnya against each other. Chechnya's pro-Kremlin leader Ramzan Kadyrov denied any role in the shooting. About 70 to 80 men -- mainly family members and loyal fighters -- attended the funeral of Ruslan Yamadayev in the town of Gudermes east of the Chechen capital Grozny. Gunmen killed the former parliamentary deputy as he drove through the center of Moscow Wednesday evening. "I accuse Ramzan Kadyrov of the murder of...

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has dismissed former Vostok battalion leader Sulim Yamadayev, a powerful former Chechen rebel at odds with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, after he fought Georgian troops in South Ossetia, a source in the Chechen administration said Friday. Serdyukov signed an order discharging Yamadayev, who had a federal warrant out for his arrest on murder charges but, in murky circumstances, ended up fighting with Russian troops in their defeat of Georgian forces over control of Tskhinvali, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with the media. The order...

GUDERMES, Russia, April 16 (Reuters) - Rival pro-Russian forces in Chechnya faced each other in a tense standoff on Wednesday after a shootout that left several people dead. Soldiers commanded by pro-Kremlin Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov clashed earlier this week with fighters supporting a rival pro-Russian commander in Gudermes, a town in the east of the mainly Muslim region. Extra armed guards patrolled the president's residence on Wednesday and RIA news agency reported that law enforcement agencies were searching houses belonging to Sulim Yamadayev, the rival commander whose forces had fought Kadyrov's soldiers. A witness living in Gudermes told Reuters...

MOSCOW, April 19 (Reuters) - A dissident Chechen military commander said on Saturday amnestied rebels recruited by Chechnya's pro-Kremlin leader Ramzan Kadyrov were engaged in violence and stood ready for another war with Russia. Sulim Yamadayev, in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio station, described a situation in Chechnya at odds with Kremlin claims that it has re-established control there. Russia fought Chechen rebels in two wars since 1994 which killed thousands. "You think there is order here? This amnestied army goes around with weapons. They do not have to hide and run... They have everything. They are just waiting,"...

In the front line of Putin's secret war By Adrian Blomfield in Tazan Kala Last Updated: 2:27am BST 27/03/2007 Crouching behind bushes left bare by the winter, the camouflaged fighters waited in tense expectation on the bleak Caucasian mountain side. Casually flicking his cigarette into the mud, the Chechen loyalist commander raised his radio towards his mouth and barked an order. On the ridge above us a modified anti-aircraft gun opened fire, directing its staccato bursts towards Tazan Kala, a tiny settlement and rebel stronghold nestled in the isolated foothills of southern Chechnya. Seconds later, automatic gunfire punctuated by the...