GROZNY. Dec 24 (Interfax-AVN) - Field commander Ruslan Gelayev has threatened to capture Shali and make it Ichkeria's capital by the New Year, Shali district chief Sharp Alikhadzhiyev announced at a government conference with Chechen law enforcement leaders on Monday.
When journalists asked head of Chechnya's administration Akhmad Kadyrov, to comment on rumors that Gelayev's militants might attack Shali, he dismissed them as "absolutely groundless fears."
According to him, "Gelayev or anyone else posses no real force to invade communities and take them under control."
Kadyrov claims that "the situation in Chechnya is recovering and is much better now than it was in the middle of the year." He believes that "by the spring of 2002 the situation will be fully normal."
"The need to maintain major law enforcement units in Chechnya will taper off by then. It only remains to crush small scattered groups before life in Chechnya returns to a state of normality," the administration chief said.