GROZNY - Chechen interior ministry officials yesterday denied reports of a bomb attack against the guerrilla commander Shamil Basayev, who was runner up in the breakaway Russian region's presidential election in January.
"There was no bomb explosion," an official told Reuter in Grozny. He added that a small quantity of explosive, possibly rifle rounds, had, however, detonated on Sunday some 250 metres from Basayev's headquarters in the regional capital.
The 32 year old Basayev made himself Russia's public enemy number one with a raid on the town of Budennovsk in 1995.