The informers that helped Russian security service to track down Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov received their bounty of $10 million, Russia said yesterday.

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov was killed March 8 in the village Tolstoy-Yurt, not far from Chechnya’s capital Groznyy.

Russian authorities did not specify who received the biggest ever bounty in Russia’s history.

"The promise to pay a large sum of money has been realized, and the population knows that this is no myth. People will turn up who will independently trace Basayev and his underlings and report to the proper authorities," Interfax quoted Alu Alkhanov, Chechnya’s Russia-backed President, as saying. He also added that Shamil Basayev, who is now the biggest rebel figure, can hardly feel calm and quiet.

Russia’s press, the Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid in particular, have doubts about the operation of Maskhadov’s capture. The tabloid suggests that Maskhadov was probably captured, interrogated and killed before bringing to Tolstoy-Yurt as the basement he was found in could hardly be used as a shelter.