Maskhadov's bodyguard killed in Chechnya

Alvi Tosuyev, Aslan Maskhadov's closest associate, has been destroyed in Berdikel (Komsomolskoye), Grozny district, the joint press centre at the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry told Novosti news agency.

The special operation was carried out by officers of the Chechen security service under Ramzan Kadyrov's command.

Tosuyev was Maskhadov's bodyguard. Before, he had been the closest associate of the Arab mercenary Abu al Walid who had also been destroyed in Chechnya.

"Tosuyev, also known as Assad which is his alias, is known to have planned a terrorist act against Chechnya's Deputy Prime Minister Kadyrov," said the press centre.

Ramzan Kadyrov is the Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya. As it seems, though, his functions have been more of an internal affairs minister's or a field commander's. When his father Akhmad Kadyrov was the president of Chechnya, Ramzan formed and headed a kind of militia known as the presidential security service. There have been numerous reports that his armed groups are involved in oil theft and abductions, including, according to a HRW report, of several relatives of Aslan Maskhadov whom this structure is also believed by many to have killed recently.

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