Global Security Newswire

Chechen militant leader Shamil Basayev has alleged that Russia is using chemical weapons against Chechens and threatened to retaliate in kind, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Jan. 12).

“We reserve the right to use chemical and toxic substances and the same poisons against Russia,” he wrote in a letter posted today on the Kavkaz Center Web site.

Basayev said that Chechen militants would attack Russians outside of the country in revenge for the killing of a Chechen leader last month in Qatar, according to AP. 

The Russian Federal Security Service refused to comment on Basayev’s letter, AP reported (Judith Ingram, Associated Press/San Diego Union-Tribune, March 30).