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Akhmed Zakayev, an envoy of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, met del Ponte last week to propose a tribunal to prosecute Russian soldiers for alleged atrocities in Chechnya.
"This meeting between a prosecutor for tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, set up by the U.N. Security Council, with an envoy of Maskhadov, is for us bewildering to say the least," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.
"This meeting...is incompatible with her status and mandate," Yakovenko said. "The objectivity and impartiality of the prosecutor's decisions inevitably come into question."
Zakayev said the "consultative" talks in The Hague were part of a series of steps to get the international community involved in ending the violence in Chechnya, where tens of thousands have died since the first war began in late 1994.
Russia began its second campaign against Chechen separatists in 1999 after the Kremlin blamed Chechen terrorists for bombings that killed over 300 people in Moscow and other cities.
Human rights organisations have repeatedly accused Russia of using excessive violence in the region, saying soldiers routinely round up able-bodied men and beat and torture them.
Moscow, which says the conflict is purely a domestic matter, denies systemic human rights violations and says it is cracking down on alleged abusers.
Russia last week called U.S. criticism of its human rights record in Chechnya "odious".
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