The prime minister of Russia's conflict-torn province of Chechnya was in a serious but stable condition Friday after a car crash outside Moscow, raising concerns about a possible assassination attempt although most officials insisted it was a traffic accident. Sergei Abramov is the second most senior official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration. The crash occurred late Thursday when the car in which Abramov was traveling collided with a truck, Abramov aide Igor Tarasov said. "His condition is stable," Tarasov told journalists in the Chechen capital, Grozny. Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, son of the slain Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in a bomb attack in May 2004, took over Abramov's duties temporarily. Chechen President Alu Alkhanov ruled out the possibility of an assassination attempt on Abramov's armor-plated car, which was taking him to a Moscow airport from where he was to travel to Chechnya. "According to my information, there was no assassination attempt," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Alkhanov as saying. However, Tarasov said it was too early to say whether the road crash was a deliberate attack or an accident, Interfax reported. "None of these theories can be ruled out," he was quoted as saying, noting that the truck appeared suddenly from around a corner. The state Channel One television network cited doctors as saying that the fact that Abramov's car was armor-plated had protected him from more life-threatening injuries.
