KHANKALA. March 5 (Interfax-AVN) - The Federal Security Service has averted an attempt by illegal armed groups operating in Chechnya to undermine the situation in Russia ahead of the presidential elections, a spokesman for the headquarters of the federal forces in the North Caucasus said.
"Security officers learned that the group of Basayev (field commander Shamil Basayev - Interfax) is planning acts of terrorism using vehicles in Chechnya and other parts of the Southern federal district," Colonel Ilya Shabalkin of the regional headquarters managing anti-guerilla efforts in the North Caucasus told Interfax on Friday.
"The Federal Security Service divisions for Chechnya and the Stavropol territory established the location of Lada and Volga cars prepared for terrorist attacks and hidden by the rebels in Alkhan-Yurt, Chechnya," he said.
The vehicles were located on Thursday and a robot was used to neutralize them, he said. Each car was carrying three 50-kilo sacks of a mixture of brownish-gray and silvery granules in its trunk. A total of 300 kilos of explosives were found.