Boris Berezovsky: Assassination of Khadirov failure of Putin's Chechnya policy

'The murder of Khadirov represents the absolute failure of Valdimir Putin's Chechnya policy,' according to Boris Berezovsky. The exiled businessman made the remarks in a telephone interview with the radio station Moscow Echo.

According to Berezovsky, people surrounding the Russian president had promised to deliver the head of separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov on a plate by inauguration day. 'Instead, Putin received his own head, distorted by the mirror of the Chechen tragedy,' he said. 'The government has demonstrated its total impotence, and most importantly, its total misunderstanding of what is going on in Chechnya and in all of Russia.'

Berezovsky said that there was no military solution of the Chechen conflict. 'There exists a complicated political process, which Russia will sooner or later have to begin. The tragedy is that Russians and Chechens continue to die, and that in no way brings us closer to a solution of Russia's gravest problem - the preservation of its territorial integrity,' he said.

Chechen President Ahmad Khadirov was killed by a bomb Sunday while attending Victory Day celebrations in the Dinamo stadium in the Chechen capital Grozny. According to rescue workers, those killed in the blast numbered between 30 and 40 people, while another 50 were wounded.