PUTIN VISITS LATE CHECHEN PRESIDENT'S GRAVE

MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) -- In the run-up to the Chechen presidential elections on August 29, the Kremlin has made a most powerful election move, Kommersant writes. On Sunday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the grave of the republic's late president Akhmad Kadyrov in the Chechen village of Tsentoroi. He returned to his summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi with Chechnya's first deputy prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, and election campaign frontrunner and Chechnya's interior minister, Alu Alkhanov.

The Kremlin had done a great deal to support Mr Alkhanov even prior to yesterday's visit, the newspaper points out: he has frequently been received by Putin, invited to the Federation Council, and the public council to control restoration of Chechnya, which has almost replaced the official government, was created for him.

However, the decision to leave oil revenues in Chechnya was perhaps the federal centre's most tangible contribution to Mr Alkhanov's campaign. "It will be an additional incentive for Chechens. Many new jobs will appear, as they will protect theirs with double zest," a source in the Kremlin told with satisfaction Kommersant.

Oil in Chechnya is produced and sold by Grozneftegas. The state-owned oil company Rosneft owns 51% of the shares and the Chechen administration the remaining 49%. In 2003, the company produced 1.779 million tonnes of oil, while the expected output in 2004 is 1.96 million tonnes.