GROZNY, April 27, (RIA Novosti) - Foreign mercenaries from among the Arabs and Turks operating in Chechnya are trying to employ in their terrorist attacks members of different nationalities living in the republic, according to Russian secret services, reported Major-General Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for the regional headquarters for the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus.
The law enforcement bodies know that the mercenaries handle practically up to 80% of the funds allocated to finance illegal armed formations.
But, according to Shabalkin, evidence by self-reported militants suggests that financial injections from abroad into illegal armed formations have markedly diminished in the recent period.
The headquarters reported that not a single bandit group made up mostly of mercenaries came to the assistance of their partners-in-crime against whom federal forces mounted special operations.
On January 30, 2005, for example, in the Urus-Martan district of Chechnya, law enforcement bodies isolated and destroyed two militants from the Bugayev group.
On April 5 of this year in Khasavyurt in Dagestan, a special operation demolished two warlords - Anvar Visayev and Anvar Abdulkadyrov, the headquarters said.
In addition, intelligence reports and information supplied by detained militants say that an armed conflict has erupted between bandits of the Dzhanet grouping over finances, it was noted at the headquarters.
