Russian reforms intended to prevent attacks by Chechen rebels are merely boosting militant recruits, a rebel leader said today.
In comments broadcast on radio Liberty's Chechen service, Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev said President Vladimir Putin had run out of ideas to end the 10-year war in the southern Russian region.
Shortly after the broadcast, an explosion outside Grozny wounded three people, the army said, in what bore the hallmarks of a rebel attack.
Mr Putin introduced laws at the end of last year scrapping elections for regional leaders as part of a reform package he said was needed to combat the threat of terrorism.
"The changes to the Russian constitution, by which Putin himself appoints and removes regional heads from their posts, has brought the whole North Caucasus against him," Mr Sadulayev said in the interview.
"Putin is himself creating new flashpoints in the North Caucasus. He is provoking the people."
Mr Sadulayev took over as Chechen leader after the killing of veteran rebel Aslan Maskhadov in March.
He has pledged to keep fighting and ruled out accepting any Russian peace overtures. So far this year, there have been not been any large-scale attacks on the army or civilians -- such as last year's Beslan hostage raid when rebels seized more than 1,000 people in a school.
Some 330 hostages died, mostly children. But a series of small attacks have kept security tight. "A Zhiguli (car) exploded just outside Grozny," an army spokesman said on Saturday.
"Three civilians were wounded, we have no information on deaths. We are checking the cause."
In recent years the war has spread to other Caucasus regions. Explosions are now almost as common in neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia as in Chechnya. "Putin has no way to end this war. And we are not weakening, and are not on our knees," said Mr Sadulayev.