Killing of Chechen leader may empower hard-liners

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"Things will get worse," says Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent security expert. "Maskhadov was a force for moderation." ... Maskhadov's death "would change the equation in favor of Basayev," says Vitaly Naumkin, director of the independent Institute for Political and Strategic Studies in Moscow. "Basayev is a hard-core terrorist, but he is a national hero in Chechnya and the only other figure capable of leading the Chechen rebel bands. "Maskhadov's death doesn't mean a final victory for the regime. The war will continue, but power will shift to the more extreme wing of the Chechen rebel movement. "It will be more difficult now to have negotiations, since there will be no figure of Maskhadov's stature to act as a negotiating partner," says Mr. Naumkin... In what may be his last official statement, dated March 4, Maskhadov said the Chechen independence struggle will continue as long as the Kremlin refuses to negotiate, but claimed that the war could be ended "in a 30-minute meeting" between himself and Russian President Vladimir Putin.