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The presidential airliner first landed in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. President Putin then boarded a helicopter and visited height 776.0 where soldiers of the Pskov Airborne Division’s Sixth Company were killed in March 2000, while fighting a paramilitary insurgent unit. Vladimir Putin laid flowers at a monument to the heroic soldiers.

After arriving at Khatuni village in the Chechen Republic’s Vedeno District, President Putin inspected local military units and laid flowers at a monument to soldiers killed in action.

Vladimir Putin subsequently chaired a conference involving Akhmat Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Administration, Chechen Prime Minister Stanislav Ilyasov, heads of district administrations and representatives of the North Caucasian combined army group’s high command.

The Russian leader talked to reporters after the conference and said he was satisfied with the pace of combat operations but noted that it was inadmissible not to pay officers and soldiers on time.

Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov and Press Minister Mikhail Lesin accompanied President Putin to Chechnya.