The younger brother of Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov has turned himself in, a government spokesman said today, denying an earlier claim that Umarov himself had surrendered.

Radical Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev today claimed in an internet posting that Russian security services bore responsibility for last year’s bloody Beslan school siege by allegedly providing the attackers a safe corridor through the region in an attempt to trap them.