Chechnya's rebel leadership has denied blame for a bomb attack on the pro-Russian government headquarters in Grozny, but says more violence will follow if Moscow does not talk peace.
Akhmed Zakayev, the main representative for Chechnya's elected separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, told Reuters Friday's attack was "a tragedy for the entire Chechen people", and the rebel leadership had "absolutely nothing to do with it".
"I condemn it absolutely," said Zakayev, who is in London free on bail, fighting extradition to Russia on charges of waging war against Russia, and for a series of alleged murders and abductions which he denies.
In remarks earlier on Friday, Zakayev appeared to provide a justification for the suicide truck bomb attack in the regional capital, which killed more than 40 people.
"Many on the Chechen side see this building as a strategic target, swarm of those who most overzealously carry out the anti-Chechen terrorist war," he told a Russian radio station.
"There are those who will see what happened today, in the context of Chechen day-to-day life, as a successful act of retribution on the part of Chechens."
Zakayev told Reuters his earlier words were intended to explain the motivation that drove the perpetrators of the bombing, not to apologise for it.
But the earlier remarks were likely to be seen in Russia as gloating. The two sets of comments show the difficulty the rebel leadership has faced -- on the one hand seeking international legitimacy by distancing itself from militant attacks, on the other hand claiming to speak for those fighting Russian forces.
Russia has refused to talk to Maskhadov, who was elected Chechnya's leader in a 1997 poll backed by the Kremlin, saying Maskhadov is either responsible for militant attacks, or irrelevant because he cannot stop them.
Zakayev said his movement "categorically condemns the use of suicide bomber terrorists," adding the attack "seems to have been carried out by a group not under the government's control which saw this object as a legitimate target for attacks".
He said Russian plans to stage a referendum to establish a new pro-Moscow administration would not bring peace.
"The pseudo-political solutions planned by the Kremlin are not intended to stabilise society or resolve the conflict peacefully. It is just a way to continue military activity, continue the lawlessness Russian forces impose in Chechnya."
Moscow staged an election in Chechnya amid fighting in 1995, but separatists did not participate and said the results were bogus -- unlike the 1997 poll won by Maskhadov, which took place after a peace deal and under the gaze of international monitors.
"There is a Russian saying: the wise man learns from the mistakes of others, a fool learns from his own. The Russians don't even learn from their own mistakes," Zakayev said.
"In 1995, they had elections, elected a president, wrote up treaties. But the war only ended when they sat down with the people they were actually fighting against.
"Today it is the same. The war will only end when they sit down with the other fighting side: President Maskhadov."