MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax-AVN) - Chechnya's First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov tried to meet with separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov in 2004 to discuss the latter's surrender, but the meeting was obstructed by "certain generals."
"Yes, I met with Maskhadov's inner circle. I was also supposed to meet personally with Maskhadov in Dagestan. His close aide promised me that Maskhadov would give up and take part in the voting in the national presidential elections, as prominent field commander Magomed Khambiyev did. Unfortunately, certain generals hampered me," Kadyrov said in an interview published in the Friday issue of Noviye Izvestia. He did not specify the agency to which the generals belonged.
"The people who were supposed to bring Maskhadov to an agreed place were seized," Kadyrov said. "Moreover, two of them were killed. It was kind of a strange situation," he said.
Kadyrov said he wanted to persuade Maskhadov to admit that he was to blame for the start of the second Chechen campaign, and say, "I was wrong, forgive me."
No negotiations can be held with Shamil Basayev, Kadyrov said. "Basayev needs to be killed - he is a sick man. No psychology professor can cure him. And if he is put in jail, he would spread contagion even there," he said.