THE assassination of Akhmad Kadyrov, the pro-Russian President of Chechnya, and the serious injury to the Russian commanding general in the war-torn province bear the hallmarks of the kind of operation that is typical of al-Qaeda.

It also demonstrates to Moscow and to the rest of the world that President Putin’s claim that the Chechen war is over and that the area has been largely pacified is far from true.

With the killing of a man whose election was engineered by Moscow in an attempt to give international legitimacy to the puppet government in Grozny, Russia now faces a political vacuum. This will make its attempt to extricate itself from the Chechen quagmire immensely more difficult. The timing of the bomb blast is of enormous significance.

It came on the anniversary of VE Day, which is always a solemn occasion in Russia. On this day the country remembers its victory over Nazi Germany and the 20 million war dead. The focus since Soviet times has been on the Armed Forces, which are honoured for their heroism. To choose this day to humiliate Russia’s army in the centre of Grozny was a deliberate show of defiance in the face of years of heavy-handed military operations in Chechnya.

The daring and expertise in placing a bomb right beneath the VIP stand at Grozny stadium suggests meticulous planning.

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Mr Putin has long insisted that the Chechen rebels are backed by Islamist extremists from abroad, and recently Moscow has produced evidence that some Chechen leaders have been working in close co-ordination with al-Qaeda.

Washington, though concerned at Russia’s tactics in Chechnya, has classified the separatists as part of the anti-Western Islamist terrorist movement. The explosion is almost certainly the promised revenge for the Russian murder of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the exiled Chechen militant who was blown up in his car in Qatar in February.

The Qatari authorities have blamed Russian special forces for the killing, and are to put two Russian intelligence officers on trial later this month for the assassination.

Russia has denied responsibility, but has made it clear that it does not regret Mr Yandarbiyev’s death. The killing of President Kadyrov was a top priority for the rebels, who have not forgiven the former separatist leader for throwing in his lot with the Russians. Islamist militants see that as tantamount to apostasy, for which the penalty is death.

Mr Kadyrov was a Muslim imam and rebel commander during the first Chechen war in 1994-96, but became disenchanted with the rebels and complained of the growing influence of the puritanical Wahhabi sect in Chechnya. He broke with Aslan Maskhadov, the elected President now in hiding with the rebels, and in 2000 the Russians appointed him the senior civilian administrator. His election as President in October was widely criticised as fraudulent, and he was particularly hated as his son Ramzan heads one of the most feared private security forces, held responsible for a string of civilian disappearances and kidnappings.

Mr Kadyrov had survived several assassination attempts, but as long as he was in power, Moscow maintained that normality had returned to Chechnya. Sergei Abramov, the Prime Minister, was named yesterday as acting President.

Russia insisted yesterday that it would not change course in Chechnya, and Mr Putin has repeatedly said that there will be no talks or negotiations with the separatists. But although his popularity remains extremely high and his tough line on Chechnya is widely supported, the festering problem blights a range of policies.

It will make it harder for Mr Putin to push through urgent military reform or to instil a greater degree of professionalism in the army. With tens of thousands of people killed already by the conflict, and a steady stream of military losses, it is beginning to strain even Russia’s ability to absorb casualties. The comparisons with Afghanistan are already being made. The conflict has bolstered the influence of authoritarians and former KGB off icials in the Kremlin, led to a curb on the press and is a source of strain in Russia’s relations with the West.