Capture of Chechen Rebel Gives Putin a Boost Before Election

Unable to satisfy public hunger for speedy victory in Chechnya, acting Russian President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday announced a more modest triumph: the capture of one of the most notorious Chechen rebel fighters, Salman Raduyev.

Raduyev was taken by surprise in the Chechen village of Novogroznensky on Sunday by the FSB, the main successor agency to the KGB, and flown to Moscow, where he was placed in an isolation cell in the high-security Lefortovo Prison.

In TV footage of his initial interrogation, he looked meek and subdued, shorn of the usual shaggy beard and deprived of the trademark sunglasses that disguise a badly disfigured face and artificial eye.

While Raduyev’s capture has little military significance, it is a huge propaganda boost for Putin less than two weeks before a presidential election, both because of Raduyev’s fearsome reputation and because of recent Russian setbacks in Chechnya.

Raduyev has not played a major part in the present war and has poor relations with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and other prominent Chechen rebel commanders.

But the capture of Raduyev came as Russian authorities were desperate for clear signs of progress in the war after two big Chechen attacks--one Feb. 29 that killed 84 Russians and one March 2 in which 20 elite paramilitary police died. The attacks shattered the confident assertions of Russian generals that they were on the verge of victory in Chechnya.

Funerals for many of the 84 paratroopers killed Feb. 29 will be held in the northwest Russian city of Pskov today.

Despite his limited part in the war, Raduyev is one of the most notorious rebels because he led a group that took at least 2,000 people hostage in the Dagestani town of Kizlyar in January 1996, later moving 150 hostages to the Dagestani village of Pervomayskoye.

The Russian military bombed the settlement for days before Raduyev and most of his fighters escaped. More than 70 civilians and soldiers were killed in the battle, according to Russian authorities. Several dozen rebel fighters also were killed.

After more than five months of fighting, Raduyev is the only well-known rebel to be captured. Leading rebel commanders such as Maskhadov, Shamil Basayev and Khattab, who goes by only one name, have repeatedly managed to push through Russian lines and escape, although Basayev suffered a serious leg wound in early February.

“This is one of the most odious bandit leaders. He is currently in prison, and that is where he belongs. I would like to think that it is just the beginning,” Putin said, announcing the news of Raduyev’s capture at a meeting of ministers and vice premiers.

Details of the capture were kept secret, but FSB chief Nikolai P. Patrushev boasted that his forces managed to whisk Raduyev from under the noses of 100 bodyguards without a shot being fired.

He said Raduyev, 32, was shocked when he realized what had happened. Three other Chechens were seized with Raduyev.

Russia’s general prosecutor said Monday that Raduyev had been charged with terrorism and could face 20 years in prison if convicted.

A fanatical fighter, Raduyev is known for his bombastic and provocative rhetoric. He has claimed credit for several bombings in Russia and a 1998 assassination attempt against the Georgian leader, Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

Raduyev also is famous for surviving many assassination attempts, including a near-fatal attack in 1996 in which he was shot in the head and widely presumed to be dead. Four months later, he dramatically reappeared after extensive surgery overseas.

Questioned in front of television cameras Monday, Raduyev wore a dark prison shirt and pants and spoke quietly. Since the 1996 attack, Raduyev has kept his face largely covered, so his heavily scarred features would have been unrecognizable to Russian viewers.

Authorities released few details of the raid. FSB spokesman Alexander A. Zdanovich said it was against the agency’s policy to reveal details of such operations.

Alexander Lyubimov, on the “Here and Now” television program on the national ORT network, gave a different account. He said Raduyev had 15 men with him, not 100 bodyguards, when he came to stay with relatives in Novogroznensky on Saturday night. At 4 a.m. Sunday, as Raduyev and his men slept, the FSB moved in, seizing him and three others without a shot being fired.

Andrei Babitsky, a Chechen war correspondent for U.S.-funded Radio Liberty who was arrested by Russian authorities near Grozny, the Chechen capital, and held for several weeks before being released, said Raduyev’s capture would have no impact on the war, now centered in Chechnya’s southern mountainous districts.

“His capture won’t tell on the developments in Chechnya, on the strategic or tactical nature of this war,” Babitsky said.

Pavel Felgenhauer, military analyst with the Sevodnya newspaper, said Raduyev’s capture would not affect Chechen morale. “However, this comes as a serious propaganda success for Putin--and a very timely one too, when one military setback follows another,” he said.