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Primakov favours talks with Chechnya rebels

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW SEPT. 11. A senior Kremlin-linked politician has called for peace talks with rebels in Chechnya to end Russia's second war against its tiny southern republic.

Describing Chechnya as Russia's biggest problem, the former Prime Minister, Yevgeny Primakov, said the two-year-long military campaign failed either to break rebel resistance or to drive a wedge between rebels and the civilian population.

``This is largely due to the fact that the Chechen problem cannot be resolved exclusively or predominantly by military methods,'' Mr. Primakov said. This contradicts the official Moscow position that the military phase of the conflict in Chechnya is over.

The war "can be stopped only through talks'' with Chechen warlords, Mr. Primakov, who currently heads the Russian Trade and Industry Chamber, writes in excerpts from his new book carried in the Government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Tuesday.

The veteran politicianin the past decade headed Russia's foreign intelligence service and the Foreign Ministry, and as Prime Minister pulled the country out of a deep economic crisis after a financial crash in 1998.

He said the President, Vladimir Putin, has been fed ``falsified'' information about the situation in Chechnya and urged him to take the rebellious region under his direct control.

Coming from one of the most respected Russian politicians the new peace plan is the most serious indication yet that the Kremlin may be mooting a drastic shift in its policy in Chechnya.

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