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#12 - JRL 8389 - JRL Home
48% of Russians hope Basayev will be neutralized

MOSCOW. Oct 1 (Interfax) - A recent poll has shown that nearly one- half of Russians (48%) hope that Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev will be neutralized and 8% think this will happen within the next few months.

The public opinion survey conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation on September 25 suggests that 40% of respondents think Basayev will be detained or killed at a later stage, and 23% are skeptical about Russian special services' chances of detaining or killing him.

The Russian Federal Security Service announced some time ago that it would pay a 300 million-ruble reward for information on Basayev's whereabouts.

Fifty-three percent of those polled do not think this measure will help detain Basayev. The percentage of those who support this opinion was at this highest level among people with a higher education (61%). Thirty-one percent of those surveyed, mostly people who live outside of big cities (36%), are optimistic about this decision.

Forty-five percent of respondents blamed Basayev for masterminding all the terrorist attacks that have taken place in Russia over the past few months. Twenty-seven percent took the opposite view and 28% were undecided.