ASLAN MASKHADOV, the former Chechen President who led a separatist insurgency for almost a decade and was one of Russia’s two most wanted men, has been killed by special forces.

Russian television showed pictures yesterday of Mr Maskhadov lying bare-chested on his back in a pool of blood near a bunker where he was reported to have been hiding in the Chechen village of Tolstoy Yurt. He appeared to have a bullet hole in his cheek.

His death is a significant boost for President Putin, who launched the second Chechen war as Prime Minister in 1999 and is under pressure to crush the insurgency after a string of terrorist attacks.

Yet some experts say that it eliminates perhaps the only man with the authority to negotiate an end to a conflict that has raged for the best part of a decade and is now spilling over Chechnya’s borders.

Akhmed Zakayev, Mr Maskhadov’s envoy in London, confirmed the report of the Chechen leader’s death. “It’s definitely Maskhadov,” he said last night. “It was an accident. He was in a house nearly alone. They wanted to take him prisoner. He had a worthy death, in battle.”

But Ramzan Kadyrov, deputy head of the pro-Russian administration, offered a different account. “Maskhadov died because his bodyguard mishandled his weapon,” he was quoted as saying.

The Kremlin blamed Mr Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev, another rebel leader, for a series of terrorist attacks, including the siege at the Dubrovka theatre in 2002 and the Beslan school siege last year, in which 331 people were killed, half of them children.

It accused the two men of working with international terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, had them put on the United Nations terrorist list and placed a $10 million (£5.2 million) bounty on each man. However, while Mr Basayev has boasted about his role in terrorist attacks, Mr Maskhadov always denied any involvement. He renounced violence against civilian targets, publicly criticised Mr Basayev and called for talks with the Kremlin on Chechnya’s status.

Russian authorities had repeatedly ruled out negotiating with Mr Maskhadov, arguing that he was either involved in the terrorist attacks or not fully in control of Mr Basayev and other rebel leaders. Yet Mr Maskhadov, 53, had recently demonstrated his authority by ordering and maintaining a month-long ceasefire, which he said was a goodwill gesture aimed at starting peace talks.

Russian officials dismissed that as a ploy to allow Chechen rebels to regroup, but in private expressed concern that Mr Maskhadov’s command structure appeared to be intact.

The Russian Government suffered a series of humiliating setbacks in the North Caucasus last year, including the assassination of Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed Chechen President, and an audacious rebel assault on the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia. But Russian forces and pro-Moscow Chechen militia under Kadyrov’s son, Ramzan, appear to have intensified their efforts this year and have tracked down and killed dozens of rebels in operations in Chechnya and neighbouring regions. It was not clear how they found Mr Maskhadov, but in December several of his relatives were kidnapped — reportedly by Ramzan Kadyrov’s forces.

Aleksei Malashenko, a political analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Centre, said that after Mr Maskhadov’s death: “Russian society should be ready for another terrorist attack.”

A REBEL’S LIFE

1951 Born in Kazakhstan

1957 Returns to Chechnya

1972-92 Serves in the Soviet army, retires as colonel, and appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of Chechen forces

1994-96 Promoted to Chief of Staff, leading Chechen forces to victory in 21-month war against Russian troops

January 1997 Wins landslide election victory as the President of Chechnya

May 1997 President Yeltsin and Maskhadov sign a peace accord.

1999 Second Chechen war

2000 Russians retake Grozny, Maskhadov goes into hiding

2004 Moscow puts a $10 million reward on Maskhadov’s head

February 2005 Maskhadov orders a ceasefire

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