It was supposed to be a celebration of one of Russia’s greatest military victories. Instead it turned into a bloody slaughter that claimed the life of the Chechen president and at least two dozen other people - the latest victims of a conflict that has dogged Russia for a decade.
Thousands of people had gathered in Grozny stadium in the Chechen capital for the Victory Parade yesterday to mark the anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis in the Second World War.
But as President Akhmad Kadyrov saluted troops parading past, the stadium was rocked by an explosion leaving a cloud of dust which cleared to reveal a jagged hole where the president and his entourage had been standing moments before.
Initial reports were contradictory with some saying the president had been only wounded. But as pictures emerged showing the former rebel leader’s bloodstained body being carried from the scene, the deadly accuracy of the attack became apparent.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who installed Mr Kadyrov as leader of the breakaway republic four years ago, promised retribution for the assassination.
The bombing harshly underlined the difficulties Russia faces in controlling the separatist region’s violence despite a massive troop presence, and was expected to set off a new round of killing between Mr Kadyrov’s camp and his enemies, who had long pledged to eliminate him.
The explosive was believed to be a land-mine, said Sergei Kozhemyaka, a spokesman for the southern Russian branch of the emergency situations ministry. NTV television quoted an investigator as saying it had been made out of a 152mm artillery shell and detonated with a wire or timer.
It was planted under the seats where Mr Kadyrov and other dignitaries were watching the ceremonies. The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the mine was planted under the concrete floor of the VIP podium, and that investigators were trying to identify people who had worked on the three-month renovation of the stadium, which was completed just before the Victory Day holiday.
Khusein Isayev, head of Chechnya’s state council, was killed in the blast, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Mr Putin’s representative in the southern Russian district, Vladimir Yakovlev. Eli Isayev, the region’s finance minister, was also among the dead, Russian news reports said.
The Reuters news agency said one of the dead was its photographer Adlan Khasanov, 33.
"He was a fine journalist working with dedication and great courage in often-dangerous conditions," Reuters editor-in-chief, Geert Linnebank, said in a statement.
A top Russian commander, Colonel-General Valery Baranov, initially was reported killed, but officials later said he was in critical condition, with one leg amputated. Russia’s deputy interior minister, Colonel General Mikhail Pankov, was named commander of troops in Chechnya, Interfax reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but suspicion inevitably fell on the rebels, who have made Mr Kadyrov a top target and made several previous attempts on his life. Police and soldiers launched an extensive search after the blast and detained at least five people, news reports said.
Previous major attacks in Chechnya have been followed by massive operations to find the perpetrators, with troops and security forces sealing off whole neighbourhoods and towns, conducting house-to-house searches and detaining scores of people.
This attack in particular was expected to send waves of fear through Chechnya. Mr Kadyrov’s security service, run by his younger son Ramzan, has been accused of being behind civilian disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Both Kadyrovs denied the accusations.
"Justice will take the upper hand and retribution is inevitable," Mr Putin said at the conclusion of Moscow’s Victory Day parade in Red Square, ITAR-Tass reported. Later in the day, meeting with Ramzan Kadyrov, Mr Putin called the late Chechen president "a really heroic person".
"Akhmad Kadyrov left this life on 9 May ... undefeated," Mr Putin said.
An emergency situations ministry spokesman said that a second land-mine was found near the VIP seats. An unnamed investigator said on NTV television that a bottle containing a plastic explosive had been found in the stands and that it had apparently been planted there after the blast that killed Mr Kadyrov.
Security was tight across Russia as the nation celebrated Victory Day, one of its most sacred holidays. In 2002, a bomb exploded during a Victory Day military parade in the Caspian Sea port of Kaspiisk, killing 43 people, including 12 children. Last year, a policeman was killed and two people wounded when a bomb exploded near the Grozny stadium.
Mr Kadyrov, a Muslim imam, was a rebel leader in the 1994-96 war that ended with Russian forces withdrawing. However, he became disenchanted during the period of Chechnya’s de facto independence, complaining of the growing influence of the Wahhabi sect of Islam in the republic.
He broke with Aslan Maskhadov, who had been elected Chechen president in 1997, and in 2000 the Kremlin appointed him the republic’s top civilian administrator. He was elected president last October in a vote widely criticised as fraudulent. Chechen prime minister Sergei Abramov will become the republic’s acting president, the Kremlin said.
Country with a history of separatist ambition
The war in Chechnya has cost thousands of lives as separatist guerrillas clash on an almost daily basis with Russian troops.
The mountainous region is inhabited by a mainly Muslim people whose separatist ambitions date from the late 18th century when warlord Sheikh Mansour led a holy war against Russian rule.
Joseph Stalin feared the Chechens would be disloyal and deported the entire nation to Central Asia in 1944 where many died. Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev allowed them to return in 1957.
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dzhokhar Dudayev declared Chechen independence in 1991.
The Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, finally decided to send in troops in December 1994 to bring the breakaway republic back under Moscow control. The conflict ended in an embarrassing defeat for Russia with the army pulling out in 1996.
Chechens elected their own president in January 1997 - Aslan Maskhadov, a former Russian artillery officer who had been the main rebel military commander during the war.
He was unable to control his more radical field commanders, and the breakaway republic descended into anarchy, becoming one of the hostage-taking capitals of the world.
Chechen hardliners invaded neighbouring Dagestana in 1999 and a string of bomb attacks on Russian cities was blamed on rebels, leading Vladimir Putin to send troops back into Chechnya.
Separatist leaders fled and Moscow began imposing local rule, appointing Akhmad Kadyrov, a former clergyman who fought on the rebel side in the first 1994-1996 Chechen war, to head a loyalist administration in 2000.
Separatists have launched near daily attacks on Russian troops, and raids inside Russia continue. In the most daring attack in October 2002, rebels seized a Moscow theatre - 41 separatists and 129 civilians died, most from noxious gas used by Russian forces staging a rescue.
Russia now refuses to speak with the rebels and there is little diplomatic pressure for a negotiated solution.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=531092004E-mail this article