Chechen rebels offer reward for Putin's arrest

The Associated Press 

9-9-2004

MOSCOW

In a taunting response to a reward offered for information leading to the capture or killing of top Chechen separatists, a pro-rebel Web site on Thursday posted what it said was a notice of an even bigger bounty for aid in arresting President Vladimir Putin.

The site, Kavkazcenter, said it and other Internet media outlets associated with Chechen rebels had received the announcement of a US$20 million (euro16.4 million) reward for "active help in the detention of the war criminal Putin."

The amount was twice the reward of up to 300 million rubles (US$10.3 million, euro8.2 million) Russian news agencies said the country's Federal Security Service offered earlier this week for accurate information that could help "neutralize" Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov.

The Russian reward came after a series of attacks that authorities have said appear linked to Chechen rebels, including the hostage-taking raid at a southern Russian school that left more than 350 people dead, many of them children.

The pro-rebel Web site said the announcement came from the "Anti-terrorist Center of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria" _ a name separatist leaders use to describe the southern Russia's Chechnya region, where the second of two devastating wars between rebel and Russian forces has been waged for almost five years.