Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has been killed, a spokesman for Russian forces said this afternoon.
Colonel Ilya Shabalkin said Mr Maskhadov was killed during a "special operation".
Mr Maskhadov: Russia says he was killed in a 'special operation'
He said Mr Maskhadov was killed in Tolstoy-Yurt, a village in the northern sector of Chechnya that has been under tight control of Russian forces.
Earlier today, Russian officials reported that three rebels who were planning a large terrorist attack on the administration building in Tolstoy-Yurt had been detained.
Mr Maskhadov led the Chechen separatists who fought Russian forces to a standstill in a 1994-96 war, and he became the republic's president after the Russian military withdrew.
But he appeared to lose substantial influence to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev and by the time Russian forces returned to Chechnya in 1999, he was believed to command loyalty among only a small faction of fighters.
On Friday, Mr Maskhadov vowed rebels would fight to the end if Russian President Vladimir Putin did not negotiate with him.
"We think that 30 minutes of honest eye-to-eye talk would be enough to end this war, so as to explain to the Russian president what Chechens want. I believe he does not know," Mr Maskhadov said on his website , www.chechenpress.co.uk.
The Kremlin has contended that Mr Maskhadov stands behind bloody raids on Russian civilian targets such as the attack on Beslan last year when 330 people - half of them children - died in an effort to free hostages being held in a school. Mr Maskhadov denied the link.