Chechnya 'struggling with crime'

By Steve Rosenberg
BBC correspondent in Moscow

Alu Alkhanov is one of 13 candidates in the elections

A Moscow-backed candidate in Chechnya's presidential race has said the republic is finding it hard to combat crime.

Alu Alkhanov, Chechnya's interior minister, was giving his first interview since being registered for next month's elections.

Normally the message from pro-Moscow Chechen officials is that the situation in the republic is under control.

But Mr Alkhanov has admitted there is a wave of crime, which the security forces are struggling to cope with.

In an interview with the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, Mr Alkhanov said that in the first half of this year, there had been 120 explosions and acts of sabotage across Chechnya; 162 civilians had been killed, along with 29 soldiers and local police.

He said more than 200 people had been abducted, many of them had disappeared without trace.

On Thursday night a lawyer in the capital Grozny was reported to have been kidnapped by armed men.

Mr Alkhanov is one of 13 candidates who have applied to take part in Chechnya's presidential race - with the support of the Kremlin, he is the favourite to win, and to inherit the most dangerous job in Russian politics.

Last May the previous head of the republic, Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated by a rebel bomb.

Earlier this week, Chechnya's acting president Sergei Abramov, escaped unhurt after a roadside bomb blasted his convoy.