million-ruble (US$10 million, ¤8.2 million) reward being offered for information about rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov. The Federal Security Service "is prepared to cooperate with anybody, among them members of illegal armed formations without harming their personal security or restricting their right to the monetary reward," the official statement said. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the hostage-taking was directed by Basayev, the most notorious of the warlords leading Chechen rebels who have been fighting Russian forces for five years. Lavrov also said Maskhadov, who was Chechnya's president during de facto independence in 1996-99, was connected with the hostage-taking. An envoy for Maskhadov, Akhmed Zakayev, was quoted in the German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday as saying both he and Maskhadov had offered to negotiate during the crisis and that Maskhadov's followers have no connection with Basayev. --more 1434 Local Time 1134 GMT
