Vladimir Putin (file photo) (CTK)
30 October 2005 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin today said any militants considering a raid like the one earlier this month in the southern city of Nalchik would face "elimination."
Putin, speaking in Nalchik, praised security forces for quickly ending the 13 October raid, in which armed groups attacked a number of government buildings. Details of the event remain unclear, but Russian officials say 92 gunmen were killed.
Putin said practically all the gunmen were "eliminated" and said the same would happen to "anyone who takes up arms and directs them against his own people."
Putin was in Nalchik, the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, for the funeral of the republic's former president Valerii Kokov, who died yesterday.
(AFP/ITAR-TASS)