MOSCOW, February 1 (AVN) - Russia needs RUR10-12bn (USD350-421m) for top-priority restoration measures in Chechnya, Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Koshman, in charge of Chechnya affairs, said on Tuesday.
The social and economic situation in lowland Chechnya remains very complicated, Koshman told a briefing in the Russian Information Centre. The federals have been unable to resume electricity supplies to the town of Argun, the Shali and Urus-Martan districts due to heavy damages caused to power lines. Koshman promised, however, that these areas will have electricity by March 10.
Asked about the expiring amnesty period for members of illegal armed formations, Koshman said that it can be prolonged if those who are laying down arms ask for it. According to him, there are still 40,000 to 45,000 civilians in Grozny.
Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the presidential aide for media coverage of the Chechnya campaign, confirmed on Tuesday that the federals have taken full control over the Minutka Square in downtown Grozny. They have also blocked the Wolf-gates pass in the Argun canyon, thus cutting the route of possible guerrilla retreat to Georgia, he told the same briefing.
According to Yastrzhembsky, the military phase of the anti-guerrilla operation in the North Caucasus will be completed after Grozny is liberated and large rebel gangs in foothills and mountains of southern Chechnya are eliminated. After that, a police operation will begin, he said, adding that the Interior Ministry troops and police forces will perform it.
The aide refuted media reports that 2,000 guerrillas had broken away from Grozny. There were indeed several breakthrough attempts, but each time the rebels would get into minefields or suffer heavy losses from federal fire.
In the past 24 hours, the federals have been checking recent human burials in Chechnya, Yastrzhembsky said. As many as 275 buried corpses have been found in the villages of Znamensky, Urus-Martan and Shali, 212 of them died of gun-shot wounds. There are enough grounds to believe that 156 of the 175 people were guerrillas. Five exposed burials were mined, he concluded.