BAKU/MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov has urged members of the Chechen community in Azerbaijan to return to their homeland and join the armed struggle against federal troops.
According to an Interfax-Military News Agency correspondent in Baku, the council of the Chechen community in the Azerbaijani capital decided to send a reply to Maskhadov demanding "an end to the operations of armed formations that have resulted in the destruction of towns and villages and the loss of thousands of lives among the people of Chechnya."
A spokesman for the community told Interfax-AVN that "Maskhadov has not had enough of the people he already wrecked and he is trying to involve more cannon-fodder into his detachments."
Sources in Moscow say that Maskhadov has been trying to scale up contacts with Chechen entrepreneurs that live in various Russian regions and demanding meetings with them. However Chechens living in Russian regions usually reject Maskhadov's requests for support, including provision of funds.