WAHHABI FIELD COMMANDER KILLED.

On June 24, it was announced by the Russian forces in Chechnya that the notorious Chechen Wahhabi field commander Arbi Baraev had been killed in the course of a special operation (Gazeta.ru, June 25). Danish specialist Norbert Strade commented: “I doubt that this constitutes a major victory for the Russian troops. Rather it is a sign that they don’t expect to stay [in Chechnya] much longer and therefore continue to eliminate local bandits which they have successfully used as agents provocateurs for so long but who are now becoming liabilities with their knowledge of the [FSB] and GRU operations to discredit Chechnya…. During his visit to Denmark a couple of days ago, [the well-known Duma deputy] Sergei Kovalev had some new stories about Arbi Baraev, whom he called ‘an active participant on the federal side'” (Discussion List about Chechnya, June 25).