Moscow - President Vladimir Putin said yesterday Russia would withdraw some of its troops from Chechnya and place operations there under the command of the FSB security service.
Mr Putin ordered the head of the FSB, a successor to the Soviet-era KGB, to take over the Chechnya command from the Defence Ministry and said this marked a new phase in "counterterrorism operations" in the region.
Russian troops are nominally in control of most of Chechnya after a 15-month offensive, but soldiers remain subject to ambush, and officials say about 2,700 have died in the campaign.