KHANKALA. April 21 (Interfax-AVN) - An illegal armed unit active in the vicinity of the village of Tsotsin-Yurt in Chechnya's Kurchaloi district has suspended attacks on federal forces to consider surrender, a source in the regional headquarters for the anti-guerilla campaign in the North Caucasus told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
"As far as we know, other groups are considering the same option," he said.
Warlord Shamil Basayev is trying to take control of late separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov's foreign emissaries, who were in charge of funding, and units directly subordinated to Maskhadov, but he is facing serious problems, he said.
"The conflicts abroad have had an effect on the situation in Chechnya, and units formerly subordinated to Maskhadov refuse to become Basayev's subordinates," he said.
"Some of them are considering surrender to the Chechen authorities or relocation abroad, and others say they will be subordinated only to the self-proclaimed president of Ichkeria Abdul-Khalim Saidullayev," he said.
"There have been conflicts between the ringleaders of Chechen illegal armed units in the Georgian Pankisi Gorge, and even some have even exchanged fire," he said.