WASHINGTON - The United States stressed Tuesday that the Chechnyan conflict in Russia should be resolved politically, reacting to reports that rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov had been killed by Russian troops.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, speaking before confirmation of Maskhadov's death, said US policy had always been a political resolution to the crisis over the breakaway Russian republic.
"And our policy remains the same. If we think there should be a political aspect to the solution in Chechnya and we'll continue to make that point," Boucher said.
Russian officials announced earlier Tuesday that Maskhadov, 53, who was overwhelmingly elected president of a de facto independent Chechnya in January 1997, had been killed.
Akhmed Zakayev, a longtime ally and spokesman of Maskhadov, confirmed that he had been killed by Russian troops.
The 53-year-old Maskhadov was one of Chechnya's two main rebel chiefs elected president and thus enjoyed widespread legitimacy among Chechens.
The Kremlin had branded the separatist leader a "terrorist," but he had always denied involvement in Russia's most notorious terror acts, such as the Dubrovka theater hostage taking in 2002 and the Beslan school hostage tragedy, acts that together left nearly 500 people dead.
03/08/2005 20:49 GMT