#2 - JRL 6525
Russia seeks to "wipe out" Chechen leaders

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Russia wants to "wipe out" ousted Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, whom it has accused of complicity in the Moscow theatre hostage crisis, the Kremlin's top spokesman on Chechnya said on Thursday.

There have been calls for the Kremlin to negotiate with Chechen representatives following last week's siege, in which 119 hostages and around 50 Chechen rebels died when Russian troops stormed the building.

Maskhadov has condemned terrorism and distanced himself from the siege in which 800 people were taken hostage.

But Sergei Yastrzhembsky told a news conference there could be no question of holding any talks with Maskhadov, who was elected president of Chechnya in 1997 when the separatist region briefly shrugged off Russian rule.

He was ousted in 1999 when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops in for the second time in a decade to bring the territory to heel.

"Maskhadov can no longer be considered a legitimate representative of this resistance," Yastrzhembsky told reporters.

"We have to wipe out the commanders of the movement," Yastrzhembsky said, including Maskhadov.

"From the Chechen underground there is no one we are ready to talk to," he added.

One senior Maskhadov aide, Akmed Zakayev, spent two hours in talks with Russian officials at a Moscow airport last year, but he was arrested in Copenhagen on Wednesday at Russia's behest and Moscow is now seeking his extradition.

"Zakayev came to Moscow and we guaranteed his safety to begin these contacts (last year), because we cannot call them talks," Yastrzhembsky added, making clear that he would not be a possible partner in any future negotiations.

Yastrzhembsky was speaking after a senior official of the FSB security service, successor to the Soviet era KGB, showed off a vast array of weaponry said to have been recovered from the theatre.

It included between 110 and 120 kg of TNT equivalent, enough, the official said, to have killed all the hostages and brought the building down.

"The explosives were prepared to the most professional standards," Yastrzhembsky said. "This all speaks of the high level of preparation of these people."