Russia has claimed it has killed a senior Chechen rebel commander and one of Moscow's most wanted men.
Mr Ruslan Gelayev- a field commander and a key figure in two Chechen separatist campaigns against Russia - was apparently killed at the weekend, but news of his death has been greeted sceptically by analysts since he has been reported dead twice already this year.
Russia's NTV television showed a bearded corpse lying almost covered by a black plastic sheet on a metal table, as medical and military officers looked on.
"We can say today with certainty that this is Gelayev 's corpse. There is a wound on the leg that we knew about," said a spokesman for the FSB, a successor agency to the Soviet KGB security force.
"He also had with him his dagger, which we know he would never leave behind," he told Russian television channels.
There was no confirmation or denial of the death from separatist news sources. Kommersantnewspaper reported he was killed by border guards who recognised him as he was visiting his home village.
Mr Gelayev led the mainly Muslim Chechen forces to some of their most spectacular victories as they fought to drive Russian troops out of their tiny mountainous homeland - a goal they achieved in 1996.
He briefly served as deputy prime minister of the de facto independent state. But the separatists, nominally led by Aslan Maskhadov, were driven into the mountains after Russian forces swept back into Chechnya in 1999, and have been waging a bitter guerrilla war against Mr Putin's forces since.
Mr Gelayev, also known by the name Khamzat, led a series of raids into areas bordering Chechnya, including an attack on Dagestan late last year that killed around a dozen border guards before the separatists melted away.