URUS-MARTAN, Russia -- Acting President Vladimir Putin said Monday that a top Chechen warlord had been captured in a special operation and was being held in a Moscow prison.
Meanwhile, a delegation from the Council of Europe accused Russia of using indiscriminate force in Chechnya and called for an immediate cease-fire.Putin said that Salman Raduyev, a well-known Chechen field commander, had been arrested by Russian troops Sunday and brought to the Russian capital.
"This is one of the most odious bandit leaders," Putin said at a meeting of top ministers. "Now he's in prison, and that's where he belongs."
The arrest of Raduyev is the first time Russian forces have captured a top rebel leader since Moscow began its campaign in September to retake control of Chechnya, which has had de-facto independence since 1996.
The chief of Russia's Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, said Raduyev had been taken in the Chechen town of Novogrozninsky, where he was hiding.
Raduyev led a raid on the Russian town of Kizlyar in 1996, during the last Chechen war, taking hundreds of hostages who were later released. He played a prominent role leading rebel fighters against Russian troops in the current conflict.
Raduyev has kept his face hidden behind a thick beard and aviator glasses since he was seriously wounded in a Russian attack, reportedly losing an eye and later undergoing plastic surgery. He is the son-in-law of Dzhokar Dudayev, the Chechen leader who led the republic's rebellion against Russia and who was killed in a 1996 rocket attack.
Putin said investigators would check Raduyev's claims that he was responsible for an assassination attempt on Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze in early 1998.
Charges were to be brought against Raduyev on Monday, a spokesman from the prosecutor general's office told the Interfax news agency. The spokesman did not specify what charges would be brought.
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