Akhmad Kadyrov

Chechen President Is Killed By Explosion at Celebration

GUY CHAZAN / Wall Street Journal 9may04

MOSCOW—President Putin's hopes of pacifying Chechnya were in tatters Sunday after an explosion killed Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, a loyalist strongman installed by Moscow to bring the rebel province firmly under Russian rule.

The attack, blamed by Russia on Chechen rebels, was one of the most daring challenges to Mr. Putin's authority and overshadowed the official start of his second term as president, marked by an elaborate Kremlin ceremony Friday.

Analysts said Mr. Kadyrov's assassination signalled the collapse of Moscow's strategy in Chechnya, which has focused on turning over power to a pro-Kremlin Chechen administration while steadfastly refusing to negotiate with the insurgents.

"This explosion marks the utter failure of Chechenization," said Alexei Malashenko, an expert on the Caucasus region at the Moscow Carnegie Center.

Mr. Kadyrov was killed when a blast caused by a land mine tore through a sports stadium in the Chechen capital Grozny during celebrations marking the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The explosion also killed Hussein Isayev, head of Chechnya's State Council, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Mr. Putin's representative in the southern Russian district, Vladimir Yakovlev. Eli Isayev, the region's finance minister, also reportedly was killed.

The victims also included a photgrapher for the Reuters news agency.

Appearing on Russian television, a visibly shaken Mr. Putin described Mr. Kadyrov as a "real hero" who had fulfilled his duty to his people "with courage and dignity" and died "undefeated."

Russian TV news showed injured children and war veterans being carried from the scene of the blast, which left a gaping hole in a part of the stadium where local VIPs had assembled to watch a military parade. Twenty-four people were killed and 46 wounded, including Col. Gen. Valery Baranov, the commander of Russian forces in Chechnya.

Mr. Kadyrov, 52 years old, was one of the most controversial figures in Chechen politics, often joking that he had lost count of the number of times his enemies had tried to kill him. A trained imam, he fought on the rebel side when Russia first sent troops in to subdue Chechnya in 1994. When Russia withdrew its forces two years later, leaving Chechnya de facto independent, Mr. Kadyrov was appointed the republic's mufti or spiritual leader.

But he fell out with the rebels in the late 1990s, accusing them of falling under the influence of Islamic militants. He backed Vladimir Putin when, as Russian prime minister, he sent troops back into Chechnya in late 1999, and was appointed the province's top civilian administrator the following year. Last October he won presidential elections widely condemned by international observers as rigged.

Condemned to death by the rebels for treachery, Mr. Kadyrov earned more enemies with his authoritarian rule. He created a personal security service led by his burly son Ramzan whose members were accused of a wave of executions and abductions. He was also dogged by allegations he siphoned off Kremlin funds earmarked for Chechnya's post-war reconstruction.

—The Associated Press contributed to this article