Putin shakes hands with Kadyrov (R), during their meeting in the Kremlin

MOSCOW, August 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Nine Russian federal soldiers were killed near the Chechen capital of Grozny when a remote-controlled bomb exploded close to their vehicle, according to Russian military officials Friday, August 22.

The bomb was hidden inside a car on a side of the road and went off as a column of military vehicles drove by on Thursday afternoon, they told the Interfax news agency.

Two soldiers were also wounded in the attack, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya have stepped up attacks ahead of Presidential elections, due to take place in the war-ravaged republic October 5.

At least nine Russian soldiers were killed and 16 others injured in two separate incidents in Chechnya Wednesday, August 20.

The elections come four years after Russian troops poured into the southern Caucasus republic to put down what the Kremlin said was a separatist insurgency.

The poll will follow a March referendum, which was shunned by international observers, had a Soviet-reminiscent turnout of 89.5 percent and, by a margin of 96 percent, approved Chechnya's place within the Russian Federation.

Human rights groups have accused federal troops of committing atrocities in Chechnya, as many of the men the Russians detain on suspicion of assisting independence seekers are never heard from again or are found dead with torture marks on their bodies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's commissioner on human rights in Chechnya earlier promised to soon release an exhaustive list of civilians who went missing or perished in the war. No such statistics have ever been published.

In 2002, Human Rights Watch said it had documented more than 120 summary executions of civilians and numerous cases of arbitrary detention, torture and rape by Russian forces in Chechnya.

"Anyone But Kadyrov"

In a separately-related development, some Chechens voting in upcoming presidential elections have already expressed a clear preference among the 11 candidates registered to stand. The winner, in their view, should be "anyone but Akhmad Kadyrov."

Kadyrov, a former mufti who has ruled the troubled republic for more than three years as head of the pro-Russian administration, is officially the favorite to win the October 5 poll, but for many of his fellow citizens his victory would be the last straw.

"If Kadyrov wins, I'm leaving the country," said Asset, a Grozny resident in her forties.

Timur Shamsadov, a 24-year-old student, concurred: "I live in this city and I know what Kadyrov's people are up to. If his authority is legalized, a lot of Chechens are going to move away," she warned.

Eleven candidates beat the Wednesday deadline to register for the poll that Chechnya's fighters have snubbed, saying it is invalid because it is taking place in wartime conditions and without their input.

If Kadyrov is seen as the likely winner, this is because of his natural advantages as the man currently in power.

But opinion polls indicate that he is intensely disliked by his countrymen, scoring only 13 percent of voting intentions, according to the FOM opinion survey institute.

He is running well behind his main adversaries, the businessman Malik Saidabdullayev (23 percent) and Chechnya's deputy in the Russian lower chamber Aslambek Aslakhanov (22 percent), according to the poll.

The strength of the "anyone but Kadyrov" movement can be gauged by the finding that 61.5 percent of Chechens say they would never vote for him "in any circumstances."

Kadyrov, an erstwhile rebel who during the first Chechen conflict (1994-96) called for a holy war against the Russians, "now makes up the laws to suit himself," said Visa Kungayev, father of a young Chechen woman, Elsa Kungayeva, who was raped and murdered by Russian colonel Yury Budanov in March 2000.

"The authorities do what they want. Kadyrov backs their thieving," he said.

Most Chechens (74 percent) say they will take part in the election because there is at least a chance that the result will improve their fortunes. But few doubt there will be massive fraud.

"This election will be a farce. We know in advance who is going to win," said Mahomed Khasuiyev, a jurist who accused Kadyrov's men of "looting, kidnapping and killing."

Saidullayev, a bitter opponent of Kadyrov, accused the administration chief of setting up "brigades" in every district charged with "overseeing" the local electoral commissions.

Aslakhanov warned that more than a third of the names on the electoral register were those of "dead souls" -- voters who exist only on paper.

Among the assets that Kadyrov can be expected to exploit ruthlessly is the republic's main television station where, according to a journalist speaking on condition of anonymity, "we are strictly forbidden to say anything about Saidullayev."

The tycoon, a former Chechen prime minister, is likely to win many votes among returning Chechen refugees, having spent part of his considerable fortune on helping them.

A Grozny imam, Khamzat Salamanov, said he would vote for another businessman, Hussain Djaibrailov, because "he is a true Muslim, with peace in his soul."

Kadyrov, according to his chief electoral strategist Taus Djabrailov, expected to win the support of the republic's 400,000 unemployed (among an electorate of 543,000 people) "because they need jobs."

But he enjoys another key asset, Djabrailov noted: unlike the other candidates, Kadyrov has spent the war "living among his people in Chechnya."

At least one voter seemed to find the argument conclusive.

For Grozny resident Ruslan Karimov, 44, the pro-Russian leader "has risked his life every day. And he has stood out against the arbitrary actions of the Russian troops."

It has been a decade since the tiny republic tried to declare independence from the Russian Federation. For most of the decade, Russian troops waged a brutal and indiscriminate war against Chechnya. This has led to the death of almost 100,000 Chechens (from a total population of about 1.2 million) and has created an equal amount of refugees.

Search Continues

Meanwhile, in Vladivostok, rescuers continued to scour the dense forests of the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East Friday, the third day of a massive search for a missing helicopter carrying a regional governor.

Local emergency officials denied earlier reports that parts of the helicopter had been found and said only that a rescue group was investigating an oil slick that was spotted in a river on the peninsula.

The helicopter went missing on Wednesday while carrying Igor Farkhutdinov, governor of the oil-rich Sakhalin region, and other regional officials.

Officials still did not know for certain how many people were aboard the chopper, with Russian news agencies reporting that there may have been as many as 17 passengers and three crew members aboard.

Strong winds, dense clouds and heavy rain, along with uncertainty about the helicopter's exact route has hampered the massive search in the rugged wilderness of Kamchatka.

Early Friday seven helicopters and an An-26 airplane swooped low over the Kamchatka forest cover and were set to examine more closely the slopes and peaks of the surrounding mountains, rescue officials said.

Four teams of 90 rescuers each continued to comb some 7,000 square kilometers (2,700 square miles) of the area where the helicopter might have gone down, a local emergency ministry spokesman said.

As hopes for the helicopter's speedy recovery waned, the Sakhalin administration offered a reward of a million rubles (32,000 dollars/29,100 euros) to whoever finds the chopper.

"The reward will be paid to those who find the site of the helicopter's emergency landing," the Sakhalin region's acting chief administrator Ivan Malakhov said.

The helicopter went missing as Russia carried out massive naval exercises in its Far East, the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Mi-8 helicopter disappeared an hour after taking off from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, on the Kamchatka peninsula. It had been heading for the town of Severo-Kurilsk, on one of the northern Kuril islands.

Along with members of his administration, Farkhutdinov had been attending a meeting of administrative officials from nine Russian and 14 Japanese cities belonging to the Mayors Association of the Far East and Siberia that opened on Tuesday at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Radio contact with the aircraft was lost less than an hour after it took off, and officials said it may not have crossed the Kamchatka shoreline on its way to the islands.