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Chechen PM injured in car crash
19/11/2005 09:12 - (SA)
Moscow - The prime minister of Russia's conflict-torn province of Chechnya was in a serious but stable condition on Friday after a car crash outside Moscow.
Russian officials insist the crash is a traffic, accident despite initial concerns of a possible assassination attempt.
Sergei Abramov is the second most senior official in the Moscow-backed administration in Chechnya, which is to hold parliamentary elections in 10 days. The elections are part of the Kremlin's plan to undermine the republic's separatist rebels through restoring political and civil order.
Abramov aide, Igor Tarasov, said the crash occurred late on Thursday, when the car Abramov was travelling collided with a truck.
"His condition is stable," said Tarasov.
Deputy Chechnian prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, son of former Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov - assassinated in a bomb attack in May 2004, has temporarily taken over Abramov's duties.
Abramoy's car protected him
Chechen president Alu Alkhanov ruled out the possibility of an assassination attempt on Abramov's armour-plated car.
"According to my information, there was no assassination attempt," said Alkhanov.
Tarasov said he was convinced foul play could be ruled out.
"It was just an accident, it could happen to any of us," he said.
Russia has a high rate of traffic accidents. Last year, 35 000 people died in vehicle crashes. In comparison, the United States, with a population twice that of Russia, recorded 42 000 traffic fatalities a year.
The Russian state channel one television network reported doctors as saying that, because Abramov's car was armour-plated, it had protected him from more life-threatening injuries.
A spokesperson for the Chechen administration in Grozny, Salavi Visargov, said doctors at a Moscow clinic have operated on Abramov's kidney and lung.
According to Chechen health minister Shakhid Akhmadov, Abramov's life was not in danger, but he would need several weeks to recover.
Abramov was appointed prime minister of the restive southern Russian republic, where a conflict has raged for most of the past decade, in March 2004.
The build-up to elections
In July 2004, a roadside bomb tore through Abramov's motorcade as it was passing through the Chechen capital, Grozny. Abramov was not injured, but one of his bodyguards was killed and three other people were wounded.
On November 27, voters in Chechnya are to elect a parliament for the first time since the start of the conflict pitting separatist rebels against Russian forces in 1999 - the region's second war in a decade.
The mostly Muslim region is plagued by daily violence and rampant abductions blamed alternately on Russian troops, rebel fighters and forces of the Moscow-backed Chechen government.
- AP
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