Chechen rebel president Aslan Maskhadov will only enter peace negotiations with Moscow if they are unconditional, one of his close aides told AFP on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's representative in the Caucasus region, General Viktor Kazantsev, said in an interview published Wednesday that Moscow would only deal with Maskhadov if he publicly apologized for his actions.
"Maskhadov is the president of an independent state and it is inconceivable to impose such conditions on him," Said-Hassan Abumuslimov told an AFP reporter in Nazran, in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia, by telephone.
"I hope Kazantsev will advise the president to begin talks with Maskhadov on an equal footing without prior conditions," the aide added.
But Abumuslimov said it would be hard for Putin to negotiate, as "it is the war that brought him to power."
Russian troops poured into the secessionist southern territory on October 1, 1999, in a self-declared bid to wipe out "terrorists" blamed for a series of bomb blasts in Russia which killed 292 people the previous month.
Two people, including a Russian intelligence (FSB) agent, have been killed in Chechnya in the past 24 hours, news agencies reported Wednesday citing Russian military sources.
The FSB agent was killed and two other agents wounded late Tuesday when their vehicle hit a mine in eastern Chechnya, interior ministry sources said.
One civilian was killed and seven wounded Tuesday in separate incidents involving mines, the Russian army command said, without giving further details about how or where the incidents occurred.
Russian troops have dismantled some 40 mines in the past 24 hours in Chechnya, the army command added.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Maskhadov addressed a message to Muslim Chechens to mark the end of the Ramadan fasting month, his office told AFP.
"Today, the Chechen people, hostages of a bloody war, celebrate this holiday in conditions of humanitarian catastrophe," Maskhadov said, according to a text of his message on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.
"Hundreds of thousands of people are without shelter, tens of other thousands have been killed, more than 100,000 people have been wounded and 20,000 disappeared," the rebel Chechen president added.
"Still we are not defeated but determined to be victorious," concluded Maskhadov, whose legitimacy has not been recognized by Moscow since the start of the Russian crackdown in Chechnya in 1999 -- MOSCOW (AFP)
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