Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the former Chechen President, was killed today in a suspected car bomb attack in Doha, Qatar. Jeremy Page, left reports from Moscow

Who might have killed him?

It is impossible to say, although suspicion will undoubtedly fall on the Russian secret services. Mr Yandarbiyev has been accused of links to al-Qaeda and other terror groups by the Russians, the United States and the United Nations.

Russia has been demanding the extradition of Mr Yandarbiyev from Qatar for some time to answer questions about his role in the separatist wars in Chechnya and his alleged contacts with terrorist organisations.

Chechen leaders tend to have their fingers in many pies however, and Mr Yandarbiyev may just as easily have been the victim of a business dispute, or a dispute between rival Chechen factions.

Did he think he would be safe in Qatar?

Mr Yandarbiyev left Chechnya in 1999 when Russian troops moved back in to crush the former Soviet republic's separatist movement.

He moved to Qatar and assumed the role of roving ambassador for the Chechen cause. Russia accused him of acting as a fundraiser for the separatist movement and of acting as a channel between terror groups and Chechen fighters.

Mr Yandarbiyev probably felt politically safe in Qatar, because Russia had tried and failed on numerous occasions to extradite him from there.

What is the reaction in Russia?

There has been no official comment form the Russian Foreign Ministry, although one Russian MP has already said today that Mr Yandarbiyev would not be missed.

The Russian-imposed Chechen President today blamed him for much of the fighting that has destroyed Chechnya in recent years.

Why did people say that he was linked to al-Qaeda and is it true?

Russia often points to the foreign fighters in Chechnya as evidence that terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda are operating there. Most independent analysts say that there are a small number of foreign fighters with links to terror groups.

Mr Yandarbiyev set up a Chechen embassy in Kabul and a consulate in Kandahar, Afghanistan, which Russians view as strong circumstantial evidence that he was encouraging foreigners or al-Qaeda operatives to go and fight for the Chechen cause.

Yet the foreign presence is not the real reason why Chechens are continuing to fight for independence. Chechen rebels fight because they want an end to the human rights abuses and policies emanating from the Kremlin, rather than because they have developed an affinity with Wahhabism or a belief in Osama bin Laden's wider cause.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-1000421,00.html