MOSCOW, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - The majority of illegal armed formations in Chechnya have already laid down arms and returned to normal life, the director of the Russian Federal Security Service said Saturday.

"Today, these people are working to rebuild the republic; they are in law enforcement agencies, and they are represented in the Chechen parliament," said Nikolai Patrushev, who is also chairman of the National Antiterrorist Committee, adding that they did not have to hide anymore.

"They took this step consciously because they saw that they had been forced to shed their own and other people's blood by dishonest, unscrupulous criminals," he said.