Good afternoon.

Let me first say a few words, and then we will move to a discussion of the issues which you consider advisable to discuss today. Two days ago you as part of a broad circle of representatives of the Chechen public came up with an appeal to the Chechen people. Much in this appeal is absolutely consonant with my own stand, and with that of the entire Russian leadership.

Your initiative appears timely, and I today spoke about this at a meeting with senior Government members. Only recently I thought that maybe it wasn't worthwhile to hurry but rather to prepare adequately. But if you yourselves feel the time has come to step up these processes, I agree with you.

I agree with you that the terrorist act in Moscow was directed in the first place to exacerbate the situation in Chechnya. Terrorists are afraid that in Chechen society itself there have begun important, I would say - systemic changes.

People there have come to believe in the processes of the establishment of a normal, peaceful, human life. Hospitals, polyclinics, kindergartens have begun working. After many years, the children of Chechnya are again going to school. Institutions of higher learning are now operating, and the competition for entry into Chechen higher schools is growing, which was simply unthinkable some time ago.

This year in the Republic an all-time bumper grain crop was gathered in, even for the Soviet period. Industrial plants are being restored and are beginning to function. In the law enforcement sphere the Chechen militia is taking over an increasingly large part of functions and real work. I want to inform you that today the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation signed an order on the establishment of a Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic.

The constitutional process under way in Chechnya presents a special danger to terrorists and their accomplices. The possibility of political normalization cuts the ground from under their feet. It does not suit them that the republic's people is consistently moving matters to the restoration of full-fledged and lawful authority.

And you are right, absolutely right in that precisely in this political process lies the key to a way out of the vicious circle of pointless and ruinous bloodshed.

And once again I repeat, responding to your initiative, I responsibly declare - federal authorities are ready together with you for this political process.

Of course, in such conditions terrorists and their accomplices - including those abroad - are compelled to engage in a substitution of notions. Instead of the real political process already going on in Chechnya, they are trying to impose on us dubious negotiators. Those who not so long ago were staging public executions in the city squares, engaging in the slave trade, taking hostages, killing Russian and foreign journalists - implanting medieval ideas in Chechnya and discrediting the Chechen people.

What are these bandits "resisting" today? Civilized laws of life? What are their foreign partners in crime trying to help? And with whom are they urging us to establish contacts and dialogue?

In this connection I do not regard it correct to bypass the figure of Maskhadov in silence. This man in the conditions of Russia's de facto recognition in 1996 of the independence of Chechnya, I want to stress this - a de facto recognition - got power in the Republic. How did he use this power? What did he do? What did he do with Chechnya? Where did he lead the Chechen people?

He led the Republic to an economic collapse, hunger, a total disruption of the social and cultural spheres. To genocide against members of other peoples who had earlier lived in Chechnya. To a great loss of life among the Chechens themselves. It was he who led Russia and Chechnya to war.

Yet, despite all the political costs, the Russian leadership up to quite recently, I want to inform you about this, had contacted with him. Up to the summer of 1999 for the rendering of economic assistance to the people of the Republic federal authority sent the Maskhadov administration financial and material resources. Those funds were intended to be used for pensions, wages, benefits. But ordinary peaceful people did not receive them.

Whereas Maskhadov, in his turn, now spoke of the destruction of odious terrorists, and I want to tell you about this (not many know that) called upon us to destroy these people; now, all of a sudden, unexpectedly, appointed them to be his deputies. Now he himself organized bandit-like attacks, now condemned the perpetrators after the failure of those actions.

In September last year we directly invited him to resume the negotiation process. He sent for semblance to Moscow his representative, but again refrained from further contacts. Instead of negotiations he chose the path of terror and stood behind the riff-raff who took hundreds of people hostage on October 23 in Moscow.

And today, after the tragic events in Moscow, I especially declare: those who choose Maskhadov are choosing war. All these people, wherever they are - on the territory of Russia or outside it - will be regarded by us as the accomplices of terrorists.

And to those who because of thoughtlessness or deliberately, out of fear before bandits or by following the tenacious European tradition of appeasing them, will continue to urge us to sit down at the negotiating table with the murderers - I suggest that they should set an example for us: sit down at the negotiating table and come first to terms with bin Laden or Mullah Omar.

Those figures also not because of pleasure are killing innocent people by the hundreds and the thousands, they're also putting forward political demands. Demands against the United States and against European and Arab states and with regard to the Middle East and Kashmir, and in our case - Chechnya. They also have claims against other regions of the world.

We are not opposed to settlement of outstanding issues by political means. We are in favor. Yet, I want simultaneously to say: to us, terrorists and their accomplices are a separate thing. And the political process is a separate development.

In this context I would like to recall how the degeneration of separatism into terrorism proceeded in Chechnya. That did not happen overnight. A seat and at the same time a victim of international terrorism, Chechnya also didn't become today.

Yes, the beginning of this way was paved by separatists. And I even assume that the people who were bearers of separatist ideas initially acted in accordance with absolutely good intentions. They, just as many others who sought in the early '90s their own ways to get out of the whole tangle of contradictions and crisis phenomena with which Russia was faced at that period of time. And I assume that they did that quite sincerely.

But it was others who then took advantage of the difficulties of the most complicated transitional period in Russian history - and not at all for noble aims. The ideas of separatism and of the so called independence of Ichkeria were quickly taken up by Wahhabites, of the worst kind at that, by nationalists and in the end - by international terrorists. They used these ideas as a cover for their own ideological and aggressive intentions having nothing in common with the interests of the Chechen people. Actually, that was used to turn Chechnya into a bridgehead of international terrorism, for subsequent ambitious plans of attack on fraternal Dagestan, to create a medieval caliphate from the Black to the Caspian Sea. What does that have to do with the interests of the Chechen people?

In this connection I want to stress the importance for Russia of the resolution of the Chechen problem. And to say bluntly to where political irresponsibility, laxity or weakness might lead Russia.

When I am speaking of the need to unconditionally ensure the territorial integrity of Russia, I am convinced of the following. Unless today we solve the problem of Chechnya, tomorrow, just as in 1999, new attempts will be made to create the notorious "caliphate" according to the design of extremists, and they - you know about that - speak absolutely straightforwardly and openly, they do not conceal their plans that this "caliphate" must incorporate not only the entire North Caucasus, but also a part of Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories.

Neither is this the whole story. That will inevitably be followed by attempts to undermine the situation in Russia's multinational Volga area. All of this is designed to steer the development of the situation in our country according to the "Yugoslav scenario." No way. I responsibly declare: there won't be a second Khasavyurt.

I want today to refer to another thing. Now in Chechnya it is not simple at all, I would say that the situation is very complicated. And it's not only political problems, of course. It is difficult, first of all, in human terms. The crisis has exhausted in the first place the Chechen people itself.

The destinies of very many Russian citizens have found themselves in a tight knot of problems - both Chechens and members of other nationalities. The long years of conflict have led to a multitude of human dramas, to losses among the kith and kin. Sometimes brothers turned out to be, as they say, on the different sides of the barricades. Citizens of non-Chechen nationality were being intimidated, plundered, killed. They were practically fully driven outside the Republic.

But all this makes us treat with even greater care the already tangible shifts towards a peaceful life in Chechnya. Makes us together, jointly help people who were drawn into this severe confrontation return to a normal, human life. This is our main task.

And here your position and your active support are extremely important. Important is your work inside the Republic. I know that you sincere want wellbeing for Chechnya and its people. I am absolutely convinced that without your civic stance, the complex problems of Chechnya can't be solved today, the economy can't be raised, refugees can't be returned.

In the final analysis, it is our common principal task to give the people in Chechnya an opportunity to work calmly, to normally earn a living for themselves and their children, to have prosperity in the home and peace in the family. We all want this - we have come to this desire through suffering, and in this aspiration of ours - we are sincere.

Together we must do all to ensure that the citizens of Russia - I want to stress this especially - regardless of nationality: whether they live in its central part or in the North Caucasus or in any other corner of our country - that everywhere in our country they feel confident and comfortable. It is equally advantageous for terrorists, the fomenting of anti-Chechen sentiments in Russia and the whipping up of tensions, of social instability within the republic itself.

And, finally, I would like to again return to the initiative for speeding the constitutional process. I agree with you that it is within the framework of this political process that we must find agreed-upon decisions and enlist new supporters for the establishment of a peaceful life in the long-suffering Chechen land.

I am ready to discuss with you any questions which you consider necessary.


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