Chechen strongman denies killing Russian reporter

MOSCOW, Oct 11 (Reuters) Chechnya's Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said today he did not order the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist who wrote articles alleging he was behind brutal rights abuses.

''Chechens do not go in for violently settling scores, certainly not with women. And she was a woman ... I do not kill women and I have never killed women,'' Kadyrov, 30, said in comments broadcast by NTV television.

''As for Anna Politkovskaya, at the end of the day she did not get in my way ... I think the people who ordered her killing did it once again to blacken my name.'' The contract-style murder of Politkovskaya on the staircase of her Moscow apartment on Saturday drew international condemnation.

Police say her killing was probably linked to her work. Critics accused the Kremlin of failing to protect freedom of speech.

Politkovskaya was scathingly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin's conduct of an anti-separatist war in Chechnya. Kadyrov's pro-Moscow militia -- known as the 'Kadyrovtsy' -- was a regular target of her writing.

The Novaya Gazeta newspaper, where mother-of-two Politkovskaya worked, said it believed her murder was linked to Kadyrov: either an attempt to silence his most vocal critic or a ploy by his rivals to discredit him.

In a September 11 article, Politkovskaya wrote: ''In Chechnya the 'Kadyrovtsy' beat men and women ... and cut the throats of their enemies.'' Human rights groups say Kadyrov's forces effectively run Chechnya on the Kremlin's behalf and are behind frequent abductions and killings. Kadyrov has denied the accusations.

Reuters PDM