FSB PREVENTS TERRORIST ACT PLANNED BY CHECHEN MILITANTS OUTSIDE CHECHNYA

GROZNY, March 3, 2004. (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has prevented a big terrorist act which bandits planned to commit outside Chechnya. Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for the regional operational headquarters for controlling the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, told RIA Novosti.

He said that it were the accomplices of notorious ringleader Khamzat Tazabayev, killed on February 23, who intended to commit this terrorist act.

According to the FSB data, Tazabayev's band made an explosive device in January this year on order from the leaders of Chechen separatists, Maskhadov and Basayev. This device was able to fully ruin a five-storey building.

The militants hid the device in the environs of the village of Alkhan-Kala in the Grozny district of Chechnya. The FSB officers had the place under surveillance for several days. However, none of the bandits risked to take the ground bomb from the cache. Possibly, the killing of ringleader Tazabayev upset the bandits' plans.

Yesterday, the explosive device was taken out of the cache, brought to a safe place and detonated, said the spokesman.