"This is revenge against our coverage of the Chechen military campaign, which did not go down well with some Government officials," Mr. Malashenko said.

The Arabs had been found in the gorge and were suspected of being involved in the Chechen campaign.

As part of the orchestrated patriotism of the Chechen campaign, local governments throughout Russia sent "humanitarian aid" to the troops: candy, canned food and the like.

The entire Air Force assets committed to the Chechen campaign between 1994 and 1996 performed around 9,000 air sorties, with around 5,300 being strike sorties.

The Chechen campaign has already been too disorganized, messy and bloody to please many conservatives, who are appalled by the condition of the army.

The three other officials have played central roles in the Chechen campaign and pushed for repressive measures to deal with other ethnic minorities in Russia.

This is the seventh time an amnesty has been granted in Chechnya and the third since the start of the second Chechen campaign.

It participated in two Chechen campaigns, in operations in other North Caucasus republics and also in the five-day war with Georgia.

"For the first time since the beginning of the second Chechen campaign, our troops are in direct contact with the enemy," the ORT television network observed.

It took part in Russia's Chechen campaigns and in storming of the Supreme Soviet building during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis.