Chechens not responsible for Russia crashes says aide
Wed 25 August, 2004 14:14
LONDON (Reuters) - A London-based spokesman for the leader of Chechnya's main rebel group says it is not responsible for near-simultaneous air crashes in Russia which killed 89 people.
Asked if his group was responsible for the crashes, Akhmed Zakayev, a spokesman for Chechnya's separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, told Reuters in London: "Of course not."
"To us any form of terrorism is absolutely unacceptable. We have condemned it and continue to condemn it," he said...
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...President Vladimir Putin, vacationing in Sochi, ordered the FSB security service to investigate the crashes ahead of Sunday's presidential election in Chechnya. Rebel separatists have threatened to disrupt the poll with violence.
"The main line of inquiry we are following is violation of the rules of operating civil aircraft," FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said.
Ignatchenko said this meant pilot error, mechanical defects or problems with fuel quality -- prime suspects in Russia, where pilots are poorly paid and planes often old.
"We are also examining the possibility of a terrorist act, but we have no evidence to support this."...
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