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Putin Calls In Russian Secret Services For Chechnya Endgame
MOSCOW, Jan 22 (News Agencies) - President Vladimir Putin took Russia's battle against separatists in Chechnya underground Monday by placing the security services in command of Chechen operations using special forces at its disposal.
Putin, a former agent of the former Soviet KGB intelligence service, also signed a decree reducing the number of Russian troops deployed in the "anti-terrorist operation" in Chechnya amid claims that the 15-month military campaign was reaching its endgame.
The decree also created a new chain of command in Chechnya under Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the FSB security service, who replaced Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev as the man in charge.
Patrushev was given until May 15th to produce results in the North Caucasus, the Kremlin said.
"This does not mean that the anti-terrorist operation is over, it will continue no less intensively, but with the accent on other forces and other means," Putin said in televised remarks.
"The purely anti-terrorist operation will be conducted from now on by the forces of the FSB, the ministry of interior, and special units of the ministry of defense," he added.
Russian secret agents would now hunt down opposition warlords, such as Shamil Basayev and Khattab, as well as separatist president Aslan Maskhadov, said the Kremlin's top spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky.
The Kremlin move to pull troops out of Chechnya and give the high command to Patrushev instead of army generals was immediately hailed as a turning point in Russia's efforts to end the long-running conflict.
It signaled Putin's confidence as a former spymaster-turned-president to entrust the secret services with key tasks facing his administration.
Patrushev had been put in charge of the Chechen campaign because the security service was "the key institution for combating terrorism according to Russia's constitution," Putin said.
Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo, Russian military chief General Anatoly Kvashnin and Putin's representative in the North Caucasus, Viktor Kazantsev would form part of a new general staff headed by Patrushev, a statement said.
But there was no place at the top table for Sergeyev, who has been embroiled in a highly-publicized struggle with the military top brass in recent months.
Analysts hinted that Sergeyev would again come under pressure to resign after being sidelined so humiliatingly in Putin's power reshuffle in Chechnya.
Putin discussed the change of strategy at a meeting last Thursday with the leader of Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, after which Kremlin aides talked up the accelerating pace of "normalization" in Chechnya.
Moscow's partial withdrawal of troops from Chechnya was one of the conditions demanded by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe if Russia's voting rights at the 41-nation assembly were to be reinstated.
Putin's announcement came on the opening day of the January 22-26 winter session at the Council's parliamentary assembly (PACE), which is set to debate whether to lift Russia's voting suspension on Thursday.
Last April, Russia became the first member in the Council of Europe's 50-year history to be stripped of its voting rights because of alleged human rights abuses committed by federal troops in Chechnya.
Russia has been steadily withdrawing its troops from Chechnya since pouring an estimated 100,000 soldiers into Chechnya on October 1, 1999.
Between 60,000 and 80,000 Russian troops are currently deployed in the region.
Putin gave no exact timetable for the military withdrawal, but said that 15,000 defense ministry soldiers and 7,000 interior ministry troops would be based permanently in the Chechen republic.
Hardline nationalist deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who said it was just "a tactical maneuver" before the Council of Europe debate, Interfax reported, immediately denounced the partial military withdrawal.
Despite seizing control of the republic's capital, Grozny, and other key centers a year ago, pro-Moscow soldiers and administrators continue to be subject to daily opposition attacks.
Some 2,700 Russian troops have been killed in the North Caucasus since Moscow launched its armed intervention against separatists based in Dagestan in August 1999, Deputy Interior Minister Ivan Golubev said Monday.
Nevertheless, Putin said Monday that there were no longer any large-scale hostilities in Chechnya and so there was no need for Russia to maintain its present force in the republic.
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