Putin Backs Troops in Chechnya Visit
President Vladimir V. Putin made a trip to the separatist republic of Chechnya, flying by helicopter to the site of one of the Russian forces’ heaviest losses to dramatize the Kremlin’s commitment to fighting the rebels to the end.
Russia will use all necessary force to eliminate the rebels, Putin said, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Putin also said he came to discuss the financing of federal forces in the region. Some of the soldiers who signed up for duty in Chechnya on a contract basis have complained that they didn’t get paid.
Russian officials have contended for months that the rebels are close to being vanquished, but the insurgents mount ambushes that bloody the Russian forces and sap morale.
Putin visited the site where 84 Russian troops were killed in an ambush in March 2000, state-run RTR television said. Putin laid flowers at the scene of the battle.
He later met with officials at the federal base in Khankala, east of the capital, Grozny.
In Grozny, deputy city prosecutor Vladimir Moroz was shot to death Saturday afternoon, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the Grozny military command.
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