KHANKALA. March 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Colonel General Valery Baranov, head of the Combined Federal Forces in the North Caucasus, believes that it would be premature to hand over the anti-terrorist operation to the Chechen Interior Ministry as has been suggested by Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov.
He believes that the Chechen Interior Ministry would not have the resources to fight the separatist units headed by Maskhadov, Basayev and Abu al-Walid and the rising tide of common crimes on its own.