An envoy for Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov has warned of future Chechen attacks on Russian targets, possibly including Russian nuclear power plants, Reuters reported today (see GSN, related story today).

“We cannot guarantee that there will not be another group on Russian territory,” Akhmed Zakayev told Reuters.  “Terrorist acts are possible.  We cannot exclude that the next such group takes over some nuclear facility.  The results may be catastrophic, not only for Russian society and for Chechen society but for the whole of Europe.”

Russian authorities could have ended the recent Chechen takeover of a Moscow theater peacefully through negotiations rather than through a raid that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 hostages, Zakayev said (see GSN, Oct. 28).  The Chechen militants involved in the takeover had presented “concrete demands of a political nature:  to stop the violence, to pull out the Russian troops,” he said.

Next time, however, Chechen militants might bypass negotiations for a course of direct action, Zakayev said.  Russia would only have itself to blame for future attacks because it has done little to end the war in Chechnya, he said.

“What happened in Moscow was a gesture by desperate people, the result of the continuing war in Chechnya.  These are people who have been subjected to violence, humiliation, who have lost their relatives,” Zakayev said (Reuters/Planet Ark, Oct. 30).

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