Moscow has issued a $1 million bounty for the death of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, according to Interfax. "We have decided to place a $1 million price-tag on Shamil Basayev's head," Gen Gennady Troshev was quoted as saying yesterday. "Whoever brings it (the head) will get the million dollars, it does not matter whether it is a Chechen or a [Russian] special services agent." "This bandit must be destroyed. He has brought too much misfortune to Russia and his own people," said Gen Troshev, commander of federal forces in the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan.
Moscow holds Mr Basayev responsible for organising a wave of explosions in apartment blocks in Moscow and other parts of Russia that killed nearly 300 people last month. He led Islamic rebels who captured several villages in Dagestan in August and September with the declared aim of creating an independent Islamic republic.
Meanwhile, Russian forces met stiff resistance yesterday when they launched a twin push into Grozny, capital of the breakaway republic of Chechnya, military officials and witnesses said.
In the fiercest clashes around the city since the brutal 1994-96 war, heavy fighting raged on the western and northern outskirts of the city, a Chechen spokesman said.
Meanwhile in Moscow, President Boris Yeltsin met his Prime Minister, Mr Vladimir Putin, and hailed his "effective" handling of the crisis in the North Caucasus, Interfax news agency reported.
Despite a wave of international condemnation after missile strikes killed nearly 140 people in Grozny last week, Russia has pressed ahead with its air and ground offensive to crush "terrorists" in the republic.
Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov said yesterday that Moscow was seeking a political solution to the conflict but would negotiate only if separatist rebels laid down their weapons.
"The Russian government is in favour of a political solution for Chechnya. Indeed, we believe a definitive solution can only be political," Mr Ivanov told a news conference after talks with his Italian counterpart, Mr Lamberto Dini, in Rome.
"As far as the terrorists - who do not respect human norms - are concerned, they must lay down their arms," Mr Ivanov said, "otherwise they will be fought with anti-terrorist measures."
An artillery, mortar and gun battle was raging yesterday around the village of TolstoiYurt, some 15 km north of Grozny, with dead and wounded on both sides, Chechen sources said.
Fighting gripped the western outskirts of Grozny, near the village of Pervomayskaya, after an overnight battle in which 50 federal troops were killed and six Russian armoured vehicules destroyed, according to the Chechens.
The Russian airforce has carried out 30 missions since Saturday, bombing Chechen rebel bases in the mountainous south of the country. The Chechen side said that Russian raids overnight had killed 13 people and wounded dozens more in villages west of Grozny.
Elsewhere yesterday, federal and Chechen forces clashed around Engel-Yurt in the east of Chechnya, and Bamut in the west, where 20 Russian troops were killed according to Grozny officials.
Chechnya's powerful defence committee prevented leaders of the breakaway republic from opening negotiations with Mr Putin at the weekend, in a sign of a Grozny's hardening stance.
As the fighting continued, Russia tightened the noose around the rebel republic, sealing off the border with Ingushetia. Chechens had been using the route to flee the deadly violence. Nearly 170,000 have already taken refuge in Ingushetia, out of the 184,000 who have taken flight.
According to Moscow, 400 more Islamic volunteers from Pakistan and Arab countries have crossed into Chechnya.