Military sources in Chechnya are not ruling out the possibility that rebel leader Shamil Basayev has stepped down as commander of the rebel groups in the republic and fled. The sources said that they came to this conclusion based on reports from former rebels. Col. Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the regional headquarters for the counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus, quoted these reports as saying that a Mojahedin session has not been held for the past three years. \"The rebels say that neither Maskhadov nor Basayev has ever attended these sessions. Moreover, nobody has any idea about their whereabouts. It has long been rumored among rebels that Basayev stopped commanding rebel units and left Chechnya,\" Shabalkin said. \"However, in order to put pressure on rebels, some high- profile leaders, such as Umarov, make some of their supporters pretend to be envoys of Maskhadov or Basayev before the sessions\' participants. This has been going on for a long time,\" he added. \"Judging by the number of rebels leaving their groups, the deceitful tricks of rebel commanders not only fail to work, but, moreover, provoke a reverse trend and increase the number of people who turn themselves in,\" Shabalkin said. (Interfax)