RUSSIA: PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN MEETS LEADING CHECHEN PUBLIC FIGURES AT THE KREMLIN SAYING HE WANTS A POLITICAL SETTLEMENT BUT REJECTS MASKHADOV.

Record ID: 442961

  • Title: RUSSIA: PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN MEETS LEADING CHECHEN PUBLIC FIGURES AT THE KREMLIN SAYING HE WANTS A POLITICAL SETTLEMENT BUT REJECTS MASKHADOV.
  • Date: 10th November 2002
  • Summary: (U4) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (NOVEMBER 10, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS: LEADING CHECHEN PUBLIC FIGURES IN KREMLIN. (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. VARIOUS: PUTIN ENTERING AND SHAKING HANDS. (2 SHOTS) 0.35 3. SV: PUTIN AND CHECHEN PUBLIC FIGURES SITTING DOWN 0.44 4. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, SAYING: "Look what he [Maskhadov] has done to Chechnya and where he has led the Chechen people. He has brought the republic to economic collapse, hunger, and complete destruction of the social system and beliefs, to genocide of other ethnic groups which used to live in the republic, and numerous deaths among the Chechen themselves. It was him, and nobody else, who has led Russia, and most importantly Chechnya, to war." 1.25 5. SV: DELEGATES BY TABLE 1.29 6. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(Russian) PUTIN SAYING:"In September last year we offered to resume talks. He ostensibly sent to Moscow his envoy, but then again declined from further contacts. Instead of negotiations he had chosen the path of terror and stood behind the scums who seized hundreds of hostages in Moscow on October 23. Today, after tragic events in Moscow, I officially declare: those who choose Maskhadov, choose war. All these people, wherever they are - on the Russian territory or abroad - will be treated by us supporters of terrorists." 2.13 7. SCU: DELEGATE LISTENING 2.17 8. VARIOUS/ZOOM: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) PUTIN SAYING: "The main threat for terrorists and their accomplices is the constitutional process under way in Chechnya. The possibility of political normalisation pulls the rug from under their feet. They can't leave with the fact the people of the republic are consistent in their efforts to establish comprehensive and lawful authority. And you are absolutely right that this political process is the only key to break the vicious circle of senseless and destructive bloodshed." 2.50 9. SV: CHECHEN PUBLIC FIGURES AT TABLE 2.54 (U4)UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS, CHECHNYA, RUSSIA (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 10. SV: ASLAN MASKHADOV'S INAUGURATION AS CHECHEN PRESIDENT 2.58 11. SLV: AUDIENCE CHEERING 3.00 12. VARIOUS: OF MASKHADOV IN CHECHNYA IN ARMY FATIGUES AND ORDINARY CLOTHES (5 SHOTS) 3.28 (U4)MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. SV: MASKHADOV AND BORIS YELTSIN IN KREMLIN SIGNING DOCUMENTS AND SHAKING HANDS. 3.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVAAGF824AVP014KUKPN7VJ5AO4Y
  • Story Text: President Vladimir Putin has said that he wants a
    political settlement in Chechnya but rejected rebel leader
    Aslan Maskhadov as a peace partner.



    Putin told a meeting of leading Chechen public figures
    in the Kremlin that a Moscow-drafted new constitution for the
    province offered the best prospects of a swift end to almost a
    decade of war.

    The meeting came as the Kremlin sought to justify its
    exclusion of separatist fighters from discussions on
    Chechnya's future, and ways to end the long-running conflict
    which the October 23 theatre siege thrust back onto the
    agenda.

    "In September last year we offered to resume talks.

    (Maskhadov) ostensibly sent to Moscow his envoy, but then
    dodged further contacts," said a visibly angry Putin, seeking
    to blame the rebels for the political stalemate.

    "Instead of negotiations he had chosen the path of terror
    and stood behind the scum who seized hundreds of hostages in
    Moscow on October 23," he added.

    Putin, who attends a summit with the EU leaders on Monday
    (November 11), is under pressure from the European states to
    negotiate an end to the Chechen conflict. But finding a
    credible and acceptable interlocutor remains problematic.

    Maskhadov has denied any role in the hostage-taking, in
    which 128 theatre-goers died along with 41 Chechen rebels, but
    the U.S. officials say Maskhadov's decision to re-ally himself
    with militants like Shamil Basayev -- viewed in Moscow and
    Washington as a terrorist -- rules him out of the peace
    process.

    Many European states, however, believe moderates like
    Maskhadov offer the best chance of ending the war.

    Russia, instead, appears determined to deal only with the Chechens
    whose loyalty to Moscow makes them suspect to the ordinary
    Chechens.

    Putin's peace blueprint includes a new constitution which
    would give Chechnya a broad measure of autonomy but keep it
    firmly inside the Russian Federation.

    He also wants new presidential elections to be held in the mainly Muslim republic.

    Maskhadov was elected Chechen president in 1997 and forced
    into exile after Russia launched its second military campaign
    in Chechnya.

    Putin said Maskhadov had "led the republic to economic
    collapse, hunger and complete destruction of the social
    system...to genocide of other ethnic groups which used to live
    in the republic, and numerous deaths among the Chechens
    themselves."
    "It was him, and nobody else, who has led Russia, and most
    importantly Chechnya, into war," Putin said.

    The only way to break "the vicious circle of senseless and
    destructive bloodshed" lay with the current political process,
    by Moscow, he added.

    Putin was deeply stung by the seizure of more than 800
    people in a theatre, just a few kilometres from the Kremlin,
    by the Chechen guerrillas who demanded Russian forces quit
    their homeland.

    Although his handling of the crisis has won strong public
    support, disquiet remains over the use of a gas to knock out
    the bomb-wielding guerrillas. All but two of the 128 hostages
    who died in the siege were killed by the gas.

    Putin said those behind the raid could not be legitimate
    partners in peace talks, and said the separatists were afraid
    of the political process launched by the Kremlin in Chechnya.

    "The main threat to the terrorists and their accomplices
    is the constitutional processes going on in Chechnya," Putin
    said. "the possibility of political normalisation pulls the
    rug from under their feet."
    As prime-minister in 1999, Putin sent Russian troops back
    into Chechnya to restore order and destroy guerrilla camps
    used as bases to launch attacks on Russia proper.

    The decision was hugely popular and enabled Putin to
    comfortably win the president election in March 2000 following
    the snap resignation of Boris Yeltsin.


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