Rebels' dilemma after Basayev death
After the death of Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev in an apparent Russian attack, a look at how Chechnya's conflict may develop.
Basayev's death leaves a gap in Chechnya which no other living rebel figure could fill.
Most Russians would not want to see that gap filled in their worst nightmares, associating him forever with the dead children of Beslan. In the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, his violent death was "deserved retribution" for the school attack.
Izvestia newspaper writes that his "triumphant face" was to most Russians the terrifying symbol of a bloody era.
"There is simply no justification for what happened in the school and I know that Shamil Basayev regretted it in his heart and soul," says Akhmad Zakayev, foreign minister in the Chechen rebels' unrecognised government.
"Yet I do not believe that history will remember Shamil Basayev primarily for Beslan, but for his 15-year fight against Russian occupation."
Separatists particularly prefer to remember Basayev as the man who recaptured the capital, Grozny, from under Moscow's nose in August 1996.
Shaken by the sheer audacity and skill of that assault, Russia withdrew from Chechnya within months.
The question now is: could the rebels recapture it today?
A decade on, things look very different - not least the state of Russia's security forces.
After the death of Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev in an apparent Russian attack, a look at how Chechnya's conflict may develop.
Basayev's death leaves a gap in Chechnya which no other living rebel figure could fill.
Most Russians would not want to see that gap filled in their worst nightmares, associating him forever with the dead children of Beslan. In the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, his violent death was "deserved retribution" for the school attack.
Izvestia newspaper writes that his "triumphant face" was to most Russians the terrifying symbol of a bloody era.
"There is simply no justification for what happened in the school and I know that Shamil Basayev regretted it in his heart and soul," says Akhmad Zakayev, foreign minister in the Chechen rebels' unrecognised government.
"Yet I do not believe that history will remember Shamil Basayev primarily for Beslan, but for his 15-year fight against Russian occupation."
Separatists particularly prefer to remember Basayev as the man who recaptured the capital, Grozny, from under Moscow's nose in August 1996.
Shaken by the sheer audacity and skill of that assault, Russia withdrew from Chechnya within months.
The question now is: could the rebels recapture it today?
A decade on, things look very different - not least the state of Russia's security forces.