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The Moscow Times was the only newspaper represented at the Russian-American Business Summit, which participated in by Dmitry Medvedev and Barak Obama

On 7 July 2009 The Moscow Times published a special full colour issue of the newspaper, timed to coincide with the visit of Barak Obama to Moscow.

The newspaper was presented at the Russian-American Business Summit, which was organized by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) at Manezh. The forum drew the participation of more than 700 key representatives of Russian and international business, the political elite and non-governmental organizations.



Friday, July 10, 2009 Updated at 10 July 2009 0:46 Moscow Time.

The Moscow Times » Issue 3002 » News

The FSB Offers a $10M Reward

09 September 2004By Anatoly Medetsky / The Moscow TimesThe military reiterated a threat Wednesday to carry out pre-emptive strikes on terrorists anywhere in the world, while the Federal Security Service announced a $10 million award for information leading to the arrest or killing of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov and warlord Shamil Basayev.

Talking tough after recent terrorist attacks killed more than 450 people, General Staff chief Colonel General Yury Baluyevsky said Moscow is ready to destroy terrorists anywhere it finds them.

"As for making pre-emptive strikes at terrorist bases, we will make every effort to liquidate terrorist bases in any region of the world," he told reporters after meeting with NATO's commander for Europe, General James Jones.

"The choice of the means of destruction will depend on the specific situation in this or that region," he said, Interfax reported.

He stressed that nuclear weapons would not be used.

Baluyevsky spoke as Russia demonstrated its nuclear prowess by successfully test-firing two ballistic missiles. The missiles, launched from the Yekaterinburg and Borisoglebsk submarines in the Barents Sea, hit targets on the Kamchatka Peninsula, about 7,000 kilometers to the east, Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said, Interfax reported.

Navy commander Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov watched one of the launches from the Peter the Great cruiser, Interfax said.

The test-firing may be aimed at boosting the country's self-esteem after the Beslan hostage tragedy, two plane bombings and the Rizhskaya metro suicide blast, said Vladimir Pribylovsky, director of the Panorama think tank.

President Vladimir Putin has linked international terrorism to the Beslan attack and denied there was any connection to the situation in Chechnya.

Maskhadov has denied responsibility for any of the attacks.

Maskhadov's envoy Akhmad Zakayev said Wednesday that the threat of pre-emptive strikes could mean that Russia will try to kill Chechens in the West.

"It is a threat toward Europe," Zakayev told Reuters. "I do not exclude that what they did in Qatar, they could try to do in any European country."

Former Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yanderbiyev was assassinated in a Qatar car bombing in February. The Gulf state has convicted two Russian security agents of carrying out the bombing.

Moscow earlier threatened pre-emptive strikes against terrorists in 2002 when it accused Georgia of harboring Chechen rebels in the lawless Pankisi gorge. President Vladimir Putin ordered the military at the time to draw up plans to carry out strikes on suspected rebel bases there.

Retired General Leonid Ivashov called the latest threat "a bluff."

"In order to plan strikes, one needs to know the target -- that is a terrorist base -- but we have been unable to determine the coordinates of Basayev and Maskhadov on our territory," he told Ekho Moskvy radio Wednesday.

In an effort to find the two men, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, said it is offering 300 million rubles ($10 million) for information leading to their "neutralization." Neutralization usually means arrest or killing in FSB terms.

"Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, the leaders of bandit formations, have for a number of years ... committed inhuman terrorist acts on the territory of the Russian Federation that have led to deaths," the FSB said in a statement.

The FSB promised anonymity and safety to those who supply information about the two men.

FSB officials refused to say whether the reward meant authorities are now officially putting the blame for the recent terrorist attacks on the two rebel leaders.

Zakayev said Maskhadov's allies in his drive for independence would not be tempted by the money. "The people in Maskhadov's retinue ... aren't moved by mercantile interests," he said by telephone from London, where he lives after a British court granted him asylum. "None of them will betray the national idea -- not for $10 million and not for $100 billion."

A bounty has been placed on Basayev three times before. In 1999, the military headquarters overseeing the Chechnya campaign promised to pay $1 million. Ramzan Kadyrov, son of the slain Chechen president, offered $5 million in November 2003, before his father's death, and the nationalist-populist Rodina bloc offered $500,000 ahead of December's parliamentary elections.

The latest offer is the highest, and it might prove a temptation to rebel loyalists, said Alexander Sharavin, director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis.

Chechen State Council chairman Taus Dzhabrailov said many rebels would be attracted to "the very sizeable amount," Interfax reported.

Pribylovsky played down the FSB's reward, saying rebels would not risk betraying their leaders.

"Our state is corrupt, and I have no doubt that there would be a leak," he said.

He and Sharavin agreed that the FSB had been influenced by the United States' capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq after offering a reward.

Meanwhile, Baluyevsky said after the NATO talks that Russia's cooperation with the alliance will be largely dedicated to fighting terrorism next year.

"One of the main focuses will be joint planning, joint use of personnel and equipment and a joint assessment of the situation," he told reporters.