AIRBORNE TROOPS COMMANDER ON THE WHEREABOUTS OF CHECHEN SEPARATIST LEADERS








PSKOV, March 1, 2001, /from RIA Novosti correspondent Alexander Konovalov/--At the moment, Chechen militant leaders Aslan Maskhadov, Shamil Basayev and Khattab are in Chechnya, Ruslan Gelayev has moved to Georgia and Shervani Basayev is undergoing treatment in Turkey, reports Commander of Russia's Airborne Troops Colonel General Georgy Shpak.


	According to the general, militant leaders are constantly moving from one location to another, which makes it difficult to find out their exact whereabouts. Besides, they never go without security guards /each leader has around 200 or 300 of those/ who constitute a triple security system consisting of an inner, middle and outer circles. The inner circle is formed with the most reliable guards. Besides, separatist leaders are well informed about ongoing developments and are therefore especially difficult to trace.


	"Despite all that, we do what we can to locate and arrest bandit leaders, and hopefully we shall succeed," said General Shpak.