Russia Gives Order to Arrest Chechen President

Russia on Saturday officially put Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov on the federal wanted list on charges of armed mutiny.

A warrant for the arrest of Maskhadov, the supreme commander of rebel forces, has been issued, and formal charges of stirring up and participating in armed mutiny were brought against him in a trial by default, said Yury Biryukov, chief of the North Caucasus directorate of the Russian Prosecutor-General Office, in an interview.

Biryukov said investigation shows that "since May 1998, with permission of Aslan Maskhadov, the Congress of Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan acted in Grozny under the chairmanship of well-known terrorist Shamil Basayev."

The congress had it as its goal to change Russia's constitutional order and to create an Islamic republic of Chechnya and Dagestan.

The results of the congress' activities were Chechen armed incursions into Dagestan last August and September, he said.

An expert evaluation of Maskhadov's call on rebels to put up every resistance to federal forces is underway, Biryukov said.

If experts find it authentic, another criminal case could be opened against Maskhadov, he said.

Maskhadov in his hysteria-tainted address to rebel groups in February called on them to kill federal troops wherever possible "and enjoy it."

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