MOSCOW/GROZNY, November 18 (RIA Novosti) - Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov, who was seriously injured in a traffic accident Thursday night, underwent a successful operation on his liver and kidneys Friday and his life is no longer in danger, Chechnya's Health Minister Shakhid Akhmadov said.
Abramov, 33, was heading for an airport to fly to Chechnya where he was due to meet with the president's envoy to the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, Abramov's aide Igor Tarasov said. His car collided with a truck 40 kilometers west of Moscow at 11 p.m. Moscow time (8 p.m. GMT).
According to a senior police official, the driver was not hurt. Abramov, who was sitting in the backseat on the right side, suffered a kidney rupture, broken ribs, and numerous minor injuries, Akhmadov said at the central Kremlin hospital where Abramov is receiving treatment.
Tarasov said the premier had remained conscious before the operation and had talked on the phone to Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's First Deputy Prime Minister, who will perform the prime minister's duties until next year, when Abramov is expected to return to work.
"The first vice premier, Kadyrov, is to perform Abramov's duties in his absence under the law," a Chechen government official said.
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov has cut short his tour of Russia and is returning to Grozny, the capital of the republic, a Chechen official said.
A meeting on preparations for the parliamentary elections that are to take place in the North Caucasus republic on November 27 has been cancelled, as Abramov was to deliver the main report. Kozak was expected to attend the meeting.
Abramov, who was appointed prime minister of the war-torn republic in 2004 and previously served as finance minister, worked in Chechnya's audit chamber and headed a body controlling public spending, including compensatory payments for lost housing. On July 13, 2004, Abramov survived an explosion that went off near his car, but one of his guards was killed and two others were wounded.
