President, killed in explosion at ceremony, is laid to rest

No one has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is focused on Chechen rebels.
VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (AP) -- Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov was buried today in his home village, a day after the Moscow-backed leader was killed by a bomb blast that cast Russia's efforts to stabilize and control the war-ravaged region into chaos.
Thousands of people came to Tsentoroi, the settlement in southeastern Chechnya that is home to Kadyrov's clan, Russian press reported. Mourning ceremonies were to go on for three days.
The blast ripped through a stadium grandstand in the Chechen capital Grozny on Sunday during a Victory Day parade celebrating the anniversary of the Nazi defeat in World War II.
The Grozny emergency medical center said 24 people in all were killed and 46 wounded. But Chechnya's Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations, Akhmed Dzheirkhanov, said Sunday that the death toll was six and that 57 people were wounded. Dzheirkhanov said rescuers from the center had counted some of the wounded as dead. He did not confirm Russian press reports of a seventh death overnight.
Other deaths
Among the dead were Khusein Isayev, the head of Chechnya's State Council, and Reuters photographer Adlan Khasanov. The wounded included the top Russian military commander in Chechnya, Col.-Gen. Valery Baranov, who officials said was in critical condition and had a leg amputated.
The bombing -- which thwarted the heavy security in place for official ceremonies nationwide on an important holiday -- harshly underlined the difficulties Russia faces in controlling the violence in Chechnya despite a massive troop presence. It was expected to set off a new round of killing between Kadyrov's camp and his enemies, who had long pledged to eliminate him.
The top prosecutor in southern Russia, Sergei Fridinsky, suggested whoever was to blame had help from someone with access to the stadium, saying in televised comments that the level of security meant "an outsider could not have come and set off an explosive device." He said investigators would question people involved in security for the event.
Fridinsky said that there were many theories about who could have carried out the bombing, but that no suspects had been identified and nobody was detained. Russian press had reported Sunday that five people were detained.
About the explosive
Fridinsky said that the blast was caused by an explosive device made out of two artillery shells, one of which did not detonate, and that another shell and a third device made of plastic explosives were found in the area later. The bomb was planted under the seats where Kadyrov and other dignitaries were watching the ceremonies.
The explosive was believed to be a land mine, said Sergei Kozhemyaka, a spokesman for the southern Russian branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry. NTV television quoted an investigator as saying it had been made out of a 152-mm artillery shell and detonated with a wire or timer.
It was planted under the seats where Kadyrov and other dignitaries were watching the ceremonies. The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the mine was planted under the concrete floor of the VIP podium, and that investigators were trying to identify people who had worked on the three-month renovation of the stadium, which was completed just before the holiday.
Chechen rebels suspected
There was no claim of responsibility for the blast, but suspicion inevitably fell on Chechen rebels, who are fighting both Russian soldiers and Chechen police and security forces employed by the regional government and Kadyrov's administration.
Kadyrov, a former separatist who broke with other rebels and sided with the Kremlin around the time the second of the two wars that have wracked Chechnya in the past decade began, in 1999, was a top target of the rebels and had survived several assassination attempts.
Previous major attacks in Chechnya have been followed by massive operations to find the perpetrators, with troops and security forces sealing off whole neighborhoods and towns, conducting house-to-house searches and detaining scores of people.
This attack in particular was expected to increase fear in Chechnya, where Kadyrov's security service, run by his younger son Ramzan, has been accused of being behind civilian disappearances and killings. Both Kadyrovs denied the accusations.
"Justice will take the upper hand and retribution is inevitable," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the conclusion of Moscow's Victory Day parade on Red Square on Sunday, ITAR-Tass reported.
Uncertain future
Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov took over as acting president of the region, but the killing of Kadyrov -- who was the key figure in Putin's efforts to wrest control over Chechnya from the rebels and lend legitimacy to Russia's rule over the region -- clouded the future.
"This will lead to quite serious changes in the system of rule in republic, because the system that was formed was built in accordance with [Kadyrov's] methods of controlling the situation," Shamil Beno, a former separatist Chechen official who now works as human rights activist in Moscow, said on Echo of Moscow radio. News reports said that Russian officials pledged a new presidential election would be held in Chechnya within four months, as stipulated in its constitution, but there were calls among pro-Putin Russian politicians for direct presidential rule by the Kremlin.
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