The head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Nikolai Patrushev told President Vladimir Putin Monday that the country's most wanted man, as well as several other militants, had been killed in a special operation in Ingushetia.
Basayev's death will be positive for the North Caucasus, the speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament said.
"After Basayev's killing we can justifiably hope for even more positive changes in Chechnya and other republics in the North Caucasus, as many terrorists raised Basayev's banner," Sergei Mironov told journalists.
Basyev had claimed responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school massacre and other atrocities. The siege of a school in Beslan in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia in September 2004 led to the deaths of 331 people, including 186 children.
Mironov congratulated Russia's security services for conducting the successful operation, but warned that efforts to anti-terrorism operations had to be continued.
The speaker said punishment for any crime against Russian nationals should be inevitable.
Basayev and militants accompanying him had been preparing a large-scale terrorist attack when a truck packed with explosives fatally blew up, security services said.
Lyubov Sliska, a deputy speaker of the lower chamber of parliament, said she was proud of the country's security services, an idea that many of her parliamentary colleagues echoed.
Vladimir Katrenko, who sits on a parliamentary committee for the North Caucasus, said, "This is a logical end for anyone who puts themselves in opposition to society, the state and humanity, i.e. it is a logical end for any terrorist."
Vladimir Vasilyev, the chairman of the State Duma's security committee, said, "Terrorism should be punished with the methods available to the state."
He said parliament had prepared a complete base for effective anti-terrorism efforts.
"Terrorists should either be eliminated or punished under the law," he said.
