Chechen President Survives Assassination Attempt

GROZNY, Russia — A mine exploded near Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov’s motorcade Sunday in an assassination attempt while he was returning to his residence. He was not hurt.

One person was killed and eight others were wounded, said the president’s press secretary, Mayerbek Vachgayev, according to the Interfax news agency. The identities of the victims were not immediately known.

It was the second explosion to rock the troubled northern Caucasus region in three days. On Friday, at least 51 people were killed in an explosion at a crowded market in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Russian republic of North Ossetia. Both blasts were seen as attempts to further destabilize the region and Russia as a whole.

Maskhadov appeared later Sunday on local television and said the attempt on his life--the fourth in three years--was linked to the bombing in Vladikavkaz.