Vladimir Putin visited Russia's restive Chechnya region on Monday, showing support for a local leader accused by rights groups of abuses and demonstrating Moscow's presence in a mainly Muslim region wracked by violence, Reuters reported.
Central Russian channels showed Prime Minister Putin and Kremlin-backed regional chief Ramzan Kadyrov alighting from a military helicopter at Tsentoroi, the Kadyrov clan's home village in the southeastern Chechen foothills.
Putin launched a second war to crush Chechen rebels in 1999 that gained him widespread popularity and propelled him to the highest office. But violence has flared again in recent months, with attacks by militants seeking an islamist state in the north Caucasus spreading to neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia.
Surrounded by heavily armed guards in camouflage and with submachine-guns at the ready, the two men laid a basket full of red and white roses at the tombstone of Kadyrov's father, Akhmad, who was killed in a bomb blast in 2004.
"It is thanks to this courageous man that the war ended. He gave his life for Russia and Chechnya," a sombre Putin said, to a roar of helicopter gunships patrolling the area.
Kadyrov faces strong criticism from human rights bodies after recent kidnappings and killings of human rights and charity activists in Chechnya. He denies any link to killings.
His tough methods used in fighting the rebels are also under international scrutiny and have been blamed by critics for the spread of insurrection. Kadyrov has amassed enormous personal power in the region that some analysts say could eventually pose a renewed threat to Kremlin control.
Last Monday, a powerful truck bomb exploded at a police headquarters in Ingushetia, killing at least 25 people and dealing a humiliating blow to Moscow's authority in the region.
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Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, seriously wounded in a suicide bomb attack on June 22, resumed his duties at the weekend.
Suicide bombers on bicycles launched two separate attacks on Friday killing at least four policemen in the Chechen capital Grozny, newly rebuilt after two devastating secessionist wars.
Akhmad Kadyrov, like his son, was a former rebel who fought against federal forces in the first Chechen war. He headed Chechnya after switching sides shortly after Putin launched the second war to crush the rebel government.
"His life was not lived in vain and he died for a cause," Putin said. "In fact, he saved and protected with himself the lives of a great many people, because he laid a foundation for peace in Chechnya. We will remember him forever."
Putin has taken a consistently tough line on secessionism -- a sensitive issue in a country that spans 11 time zones from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean and embraces dozens of ethnic and religious groups.
Putin's press service issued a curt statement saying he and Kadyrov had discussed "the republic's social and economic situation, the problem of employment among the local population and the implementation of a number of investment projects".