Chechen separatists vowed to press on with their fight for independence after guerrilla leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed in what the Kremlin saw as a coup for President Vladimir Putin's hardline policies in the region.
"It is a very big loss but it is not a death blow to us, as Putin thinks," said Mr Maskhadov's London-based envoy Akhmed Zakayev. He said a successor would be named within days.
Mr Maskhadov, 53, one of Russia's two most wanted men, was killed yesterday in an operation by the FSB security service in a village north of the Chechen region's capital Grozny, officials said.
The Kremlin, which had accused Mr Maskhadov of masterminding a series of deadly attacks on civilian argets, including last year's Beslan school siege, hailed his death as a success for its policies.
But some political analysts, who saw him as a moderate leader with whom the Kremlin could negotiate, said Mr Maskhadov's death was a blow to any chance of peace in the region.
Mr Zakayev, Mr Maskhadov's main envoy in the West, signalled the killing could trigger revenge attacks.