Chechen Leader: Kadyrov Successor Will Also Be Killed

6 July 2004 -- Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov is warning that any leader installed by Moscow to lead the republic is likely to be assassinated.

Chechnya is due to have presidential elections on 29 August to fill the vacancy left by Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov, who was killed in May in a bomb blast.

Maskhadov, in an interview published today on a separatist website (kavkazcenter.com), said any successor to Kadyrov would "only be in power until the hand of the Mujahedin reach him."

Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov, who is the Kremlin's designated favorite in the presidential race, dismissed Maskhadov's threat, saying the separatists had sought to kill him since 1991, without success.

(Reuters/AFP)