CHECHEN MILITANTS DECLARE CEASEFIRE
RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti) - Aslan Maskhadov, the leader of the Chechen militants, has issued an order called "The Order to Halt Offensive Combat Activities Unilaterally", Rossiiskaya Gazeta reports.
According to separatists, they decided to do so in a goodwill gesture. They expect the same from the federal authorities, and have urged them to start negotiations.
However, the authorities doubt that Basayev has anything to do with this initiative and have stated that Maskhadov's order is interesting only to Maskhadov himself. Perhaps, he is trying to attract attention this way. Moreover, Maskhadov already gave a similar order in April 2000. Then militants carried out no large-scale operations but continued to commit terrorist attacks.
According to different sources, this time ceasefire has been declared till the end of February.
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