Russia offers plastic surgery to informers
Stepping up their hunt for their biggest enemy, Russia’s security services today offered to pay for plastic surgery for anyone who gives information leading to the killing or capture of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev.
Basayev, a radical Islamic warlord who claimed responsibility for the Beslan school seizure and other terror attacks, is now seen as the most powerful rebel figure in Chechnya after a little-known former Islamic court judge replaced Maskhadov as the militants’ leader.
“The law enforcement agencies guarantee their safety, with the option of taking a new passport, changing their residence, and if necessary, undergoing plastic surgery to change their features,” said Federal Security Service spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko.
A top prosecutor said today that a leader of the militants who took part in the Beslan school siege that left more than 330 people dead had implicated the late rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov in the attack.
