KHANKALA. Nov 24 (Interfax-AVN) - Members of guerrilla groups active in Chechnya have not ruled out the possibility that separatist leader Shamil Basayev may have left the republic.
"Detained members of Basayev's guerrilla groups have said that most low-ranking commanders have been left to their own devices, funds come in irregularly, and if they do arrive at all, their amount is minimal," Major General Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus, told Interfax on Wednesday.
"Nobody is commanding the militant groups or maintaining contact with them. No guerrillas know Basayev's whereabouts. It is rumored among guerrillas that Basayev is already abroad," he said.
A militant from Khusein Ismailov's group, which operates near the village of Chiri-Yurt in Chechnya's Shali district, said that they have not been able to establish contact with Basayev for a long time, according to the spokesman.
"Over the past two months, they have not received money to support their families and finance the guerrilla group. The families of militants killed in federal troops special operations have not been given money for more than six months," Shabalkin said.