Shamil Basayev, radical Chechen leader, taking up Putin's charges of links between Chechen militants and a wider international network of terror, denied any links with Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
"I don't know bin Laden. I don't get money from him, but I wouldn't turn it down," he said.
Basayev outlined the costs of recent attacks.
The plane explosions cost $4,000 to carry out, two explosions in Moscow $7,000 and the bill for the Beslan attack came to 8,000 euros ($9,700), he said.
The heavily-bearded Basayev has been fighting Russian forces for over 13 years. He is reported to have lost 11 relatives including his wife in Russian attacks in Chechnya in 1995 and has only one foot after treading on a mine in 2000.
The Kremlin put up a bounty of $10 million for him and Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov in the aftermath of the Beslan school tragedy. Maskhadov has denied involvement. Foreign-based human rights groups on Friday renewed pleas to Putin to change tack on Chechnya to head off further bloodshed.
Lev Ponomaryov of the Geneva-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, speaking to reporters in the Kazakh capital Astana, urged Putin to consider talks with Maskhadov, a former elected president of Chechnya.
Many Russian officials rallied to Putin's defence however, saying the gunmen's demands for a withdrawal of Russian forces and Putin's resignation had been unrealistic.
Basayev said the 33-member Beslan group had included 12 Chechen men, two Chechen women, two Arabs and others from various Caucasus national groups.
