Azerbaijan's Chechen diaspora denies financing terrorists

In his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent, Chechen human rights activist Mairbek Taramov denied reports made by Russian special services that money for executors of terror attacks in Beslan, Moscow and Nazran had been received from Azerbaijan. In Mr Taramov's words, the Russian special services advisedly spread such information in order to discredit Azerbaijan in the opinion of the world community and complicate the life of Chechen refugees living in Azerbaijan.

Mr Taramov also said Ruslan Zelimkhanov, an activist of the Chechen community in Azerbaijan, was assaulted on September 7. Three unknowns inflicted knife wounds upon the Chechen refugee. Now Ruslan Zelimkhanov is in a hospital ward at the Nagiyev Institute of Emergency Care, where he has been moved from the reanimation department. Mairbek Taramov asserts Zelimkhanov is an active person, who caused inconvenience to many people. He headed a number of Chechen non-governmental organizations in Azerbaijan.

It is not inconceivable that the attack may have been the Russian special services' doing, Mr Taramov added. The Kremlin actively uses "Chechens against Chechens" in recent years, he said.