Military

YASTRZHEMBSKY: Acting president Vladimir Putin held a working conference in the framework of the Security Council in the Kremlin today. The conference participants discussed several questions, above all the progress of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya and the coordination of the efforts of the ministries and departments involved in it. They also discussed political moves, the schedule of political steps that can be taken in Chechnya this year. On a broader plane, they discussed the political future of Chechnya as a member of the Russian Federation.

The elections of the Russian president will be held in those regions of Chechnya where conditions for this have been created. I will speak about this in greater detail later. Additional elections to the State Duma will be held [there]. The federal centre, acting jointly with the Chechen public and respected Chechen leaders, will try also to hold elections to local bodies of power in Chechnya. It is quite possible that direct presidential rule will be introduced in Chechnya after the presidential elections. I repeat, this is a possibility. We can expect the political dialogue between the federal centre, the federal authorities and Chechen representative to become more energetic very soon. I do not exclude the possibility that Vladimir Putin will take a direct part in this dialogue.

Now about the operational situation. I am a little late today (sorry) because I talked with Khankala, asking them for the latest news about the operational situation. For actually about a week, there have been two centres of resistance there - the settlement of Komsomolskoye (we'll talk about it later) and the area of Urus-Kert and Selmentauzen. The resistance in the second area has been virtually suppressed, and the region has been mopped up. But a medium-large group of some 40-50 fighters was detected 15 km outside Selmentauzen to the south, which is being liquidated now.

As for Komsomolskoye, the battle is still raging there. It is being waged in the south-eastern part of the village. According to our assessment, some 100-150 militants are hiding in houses and cellar emplacements, from which they are fighting the federal forces. We are not using aviation now because of a close contact between the advancing federal forces and the Chechen fighters. And lastly, according to the latest information, Gelayev is still in Komsomolskoye. To prevent other questions, I will tell you now that I have no reliable information about the whereabouts of the other bandit warlords.

The operation of the Interior Ministry agencies has been changed to make their actions and the efforts of the Interior Troops more effective. The spotlight is on the comprehensive and more careful preparation of special operations and preventive measures in the liberated regions of Chechnya. Special attention is paid to holding such operations in those settlements, where they had not been held before for several reasons. To preclude the movement of bandit groups, the leaders of the Interior Ministry have drafted and are using a system of control over the movement of citizens and vehicles not only across the administrative border of Chechnya, but also in the security zone. Seven operational-preventive measures were taken in Argun, Shelkovskaya, Groznensky, Shali, Urus-Martan and Achkhoi-Martan in the past 24 hours, resulting in the detainment of seven persons and the confiscation of a considerable amount of weapons and munitions.

Information of the Federal Frontier Service: No radical changes in the situation.

The latest information about the provision of hot meals to the residents of Grozny shows that some 19,000 people get regular hot meals there. Six stationary hot food catering centres and 11 mobile catering points were established for this purpose. The Emergencies Ministry staff continue to bury the dead. As of now, they have buried 557 people in Grozny.

There are 64 people in the Chernokozovo detention centre. There had been 858 people, but 453 of them were released after the investigation and 341 were convoyed beyond the territory of Chechnya. I want to refute the following information: Certain Arbi Savarbekov and Aiset Kurbanova tell about what is going on in Chernokozovo on Udugov's Kavkaz-tsentr web site. According to information from GUIN, there were no such persons in the Chernokozovo detention centre.

Information from Nikolai Koshman's administration: Electricity has been regularly provided to Shali since yesterday. It is expected to be provided to Argun, Urus-Martan, Shalazhi, Samashki, Achkhoi-Martan and other settlements today and tomorrow. According to established norms, it takes more than six months to restore [electricity], but several brigades of 800 repairmen and exploitation specialists, working seven days a week, fulfilled the task in 42 days.

Six fuel tank vehicles with stolen oil were detained in Chechnya yesterday.

The newspaper Chechnya Svobodnaya published a list of polling stations for voting and counting of votes during the elections of the Russian president on the territory of Chechnya. In all, there will be 336 polling stations. A plane with documents and equipment for the territorial election commissions and polling stations is expected in Mozdok today. I ask the media representatives to file requests for covering the elections in Chechnya [now], so that we could evaluate the level of your interest and create, if necessary, several teams in order to ensure your presence at the polling stations.

I have not mentioned yet today's sensation, Raduyev. You have all information we have.  I hope that we will broadcast the tape showing Raduyev, say, during interrogation, by the end of the day.

ORT: You mentioned a more energetic dialogue with Chechen representatives. What representatives are these? The elders, influential people, or maybe somebody in Moscow? And the second question: Is it possible to talk with representatives whose hands are stained with blood? I mean Maskhadov.

YASTRZHEMBSKY: Replying to your second question, I can tell you firmly that no, dialogue with such people is impossible. I cannot imagine any dialogue with Maskhadov other than in the Office of the General Prosecutor. You know that criminal proceedings have been launched against Maskhadov, and I think that more and more people in the West are realistically evaluating his regime and actions.

I noted a report from Monte Carlo, the statement of Walter Schwimmer, General Secretary of the Council of Europe, but it calls for verification. There might be misinterpretations due to translation, but the spirit of this statement is notable. He said: Major violations of human rights in Chechnya were permitted by the regime of Maskhadov, who failed to use the possibilities created during the signing of the peace agreement four years ago. I quote him from an ITAR-TASS translation. Schwimmer also said: Instead of developing democratic norms and principles in accordance with international standards, that regime allowed criminal elements to kidnap people, established Shariah laws in harsh forms, and pandered to terrorists.

I think this is a very accurate description and a correct analysis, which prompts not only to us that it is impossible to have talks with Maskhadov and his regime. He must be tried instead. 

As for your first question, you formulated it correctly. Dialogue should be held with the elders of the Chechen diaspora, representatives of the Chechen public, and, I think, with those Chechens who stay and live in Moscow and are respected people of the Russian society. It is also those Chechens who now head, albeit temporarily, the administrations of different regions of Chechnya. It is those Chechens who directly deal with the people's problems and resolve them daily through dialogue and cooperation with the federal authorities, the military commandants, and the Koshman mission. It is those Chechens who bear the brunt of administrative responsibility on the territory of the liberated regions. Other questions?

RIA NOVOSTI: In view of Salman Raduyev's grave crimes, what are the conditions in which he is now being kept and planned to be kept?

YASTRZHEMBSKY: You know I cannot give you any additional information. I think the conditions are tight once he is in Moscow. I believe everything will go in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code and end in a trial. Any more questions?

EKHO MOSKVY: You said a direct presidential rule might be introduced after the election - on the basis of what legal act? Neither our constitution nor laws provide for such a rule.

YASTRZHEMBSKY: I think appropriate legal acts must be framed. This was said, in my view, by one of the Federation Council members. If I am not mistaken, Yegor Stroyev too, I think, suggested that this form should be chosen for Chechnya. Of course, there must be an appropriate legal framework.

RADIO LIBERTY: Do you know Lord Judd's reaction after his trip to Chechnya? His comments were very harsh. What is the attitude of the federal centre to his remarks?

YASTRZHEMBSKY: Well, he made many remarks. What precisely do you mean?

SAME: I mean an immediate ceasefire and opening of talks at least with Maskhadov, because he, in Judd's view, is a legitimate authority elected by the Chechen people.

YASTRZHEMBSKY: Yes, I know these remarks. The counter-terrorist operation in the Chechen Republic will be completed and brought to its logical conclusion, ending in the total destruction of bandit groups. That is point one. Without that revival of Chechnya and re-instatement of Chechnya in the Russian Federation's constitutional field as one of its constituent members are impossible. That is point one. Point two. As I have just said, it is impossible to negotiate with a man who has on his conscience, first, participation in an armed rebellion - you know there is a criminal case opened against Maskhadov. And second, with the head of a regime which is now also seen in the Council of Europe by Lord Judd's colleagues as one who encouraged establishment of Shariah laws, kidnapping of people, and terror. Recently Maskhadov himself tried to offer in telephone conversations with senior Council of Europe officials in exchange two Polish nationals and a French citizen, probably held in Maskhadov's hands at that time, which is an indirect confirmation of the fact that the charges made today and recently to the Maskhadov regime by Walter Schwimmer are in general confirmed. He is not the kind of man with whom one negotiates.

QUESTION: Do you know of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper editor's intention to sue you?

YASTRZHEMBSKY: I know about the intention. We live in a democratic society where everyone has the opportunity to uphold his point of view, including in a court of law. Such a right also exists in my case, and I have long had complaints against the newspaper. But let us see what they will undertake, let them try to prove the improvable. This is because I have never anywhere accused any Russian publication of being financed from abroad. Whatever the challenge, I will accept it. Any more questions?

JOHN AZAPEW: What leverage will you use against countries which provide Chechen militants with support or where they have been trained? Have you asked European community countries to back you here?

YASTRZHEMBSKY: Which countries?

SAME: The European community.

YASTRZHEMBSKY: You are very consistent in your questions, at each briefing you keep asking roughly one and the same question, wording it differently each time. As I see it, you have a special assignment from the editor to prepare a relevant report. I do not think that the amount of information you need grows from briefing to briefing. We are trying to give you information on, say, countries from which come some or other mercenaries who have fought or are fighting in Chechnya as members of bandit groups. Such information has grown in the recent period. I think it has already become a regular feature both on TV screens and in many newspapers and magazines. There are piles of discovered documents on terrorists from Arab countries. To be sure, such work is going on. It is conducted through the diplomatic channels, at the level of political leadership, including Russia's acting President, including the Security Council secretary, including Russian Foreign Minister. This is the kind of work that is invisible to the broad public, it is often confidential, because its nature presupposes its confidentiality. I can assure you that practically none or in fact none of international meetings at the levels I mentioned takes place without an exchange of information on this subject.

QUESTION: Still we have come here mainly because of Raduyev, and so we would like to ...

YASTRZHEMBSKY: It is remarkable that Raduyev was the cause that brought you here, but I have no more information on Raduyev. The FSB director told you the maximum possible today. I cannot give you more. Next please.

QUESTION: Yesterday's NTV programme reported that in the Voskresenskoye village there are very many prisoners of war and hostages held by militants. They are being kept in a basement, and then it was said that they are exchanged for Russian captive soldiers and accordingly for militants. That is my first question.

YASTRZHEMBSKY: What do I know? Apart from this nothing. Since attention has been focused on it, I will do my own bit of investigating. I saw this information, but had no time today to look into it. I will check it and try to tell you all tomorrow.

SAME: Can I continue with my question? You have already said about Gelayev. Can you confirm or deny the information that Khattab and Basayev have broken out of the encirclement?

YASTRZHEMBSKY: I cannot. I warned you specially that I have no reliable information on the other main leaders of bandit groups. There are lots of it, we are monitoring it all and there are many newsmakers who I think sometimes scramble to feed it to the mass media without checking it to the end.

When a fact becomes a fact, a welcome fact as in the case of Raduyev, this can be reported as something really done. As I see it, no dead bodies of Basayev and Khattab have been discovered, nor of Gelayev and Maskhadov. It means all the rest is perhaps part of the game being imposed on us by those same leaders of bandit groups.

I want to remind you that that same Raduyev was very active in pursuing this game. Do you remember that relatively recently we discussed information here that he was reportedly killed and buried. Before that there was information that as a result of turf war he was killed, by his own ilk.

There were so many such information releases that the point of view was perhaps inculcated that it made no sense to look for Raduyev any longer. So I think that those who do not believe in such releases by way of duty, continue their search for criminals, find them, render them harmless or arrest them did the right thing. Next please.

A PORTUGUESE NEWSPAPER: Concerning the election. Is the picture already clear where the elections will be held and will refugees from camps go to the polls?