Moscow attacked over Chechnya

PRO-MOSCOW forces are using abductions and murder to subdue separatist resistance in Chechnya, even securing false confessions under torture, the human rights group Amnesty International said yesterday.

The allegations came three days after President Vladimir Putin, who came to power on a pledge to break Chechen separatism, publicly recognised abductions were a growing problem in the shattered region.

An Amnesty report said: “What the Russian government describes as its ‘war on terror’ in this region is being used as a pretext for violations that include ‘disappearances’, torture, arbitrary detention and incommunicado detention.