Main > Timeline > 2005

Aslan Maskhadov killed

On March 8, 2005 Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed in Chechnya. Russian television showed pictures of a body resembling that of Mr Maskhadov, 53, in a pool of blood in Chechnya. Maskhadov was elected Chechen president in January 1997 but was ousted two years later. Gen Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for Russian forces in the Caucasus region, told news agencies that Mr Maskhadov's body had been found in a bunker.

Russian NTV television showed Federal Security Service head Nikolai Patrushev telling President Vladimir Putin that Maskhadov had been killed in a “special operation” in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt. He told the president the FSB special operations team "carried out an operation in the settlement of Tolstoy-Yurt, as a result of which the international terrorist and leader of armed groups Maskhadov was killed, and his closest comrades-in-arms detained".

"If this information is confirmed, grant state awards to all those involved in the operation," the Russian leader said. "We have to gather our forces to protect the people of the republic and citizens of all Russia from the bandits," Mr Putin said.

Chechnya's Moscow-appointed Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov told Interfax news agency the intention had been to take Mr Maskhadov alive, but he had been killed as a result of his bodyguards' carelessness in handling their weapons.

Russian television showed pictures of a grey-bearded and shirtless corpse in a pool of blood.