CHECHEN POSITIONS HARDENING AS RUSSIANS WANT END TO WAR

.The situation at the negotiating table reflects a deeper seachange in the positions of the two sides. The Chechens are anythingbut defeated. Izvestiya reported July 1 that many Chechensnow call Shamil Basayev, the leader of the Budennovsk raid, "thenew Imam Shamil," a reference to the nineteenth centuryleader of the North Caucasian resistance to Russian expansion.The paper added that Chechnya ever more "looks like Tajikistan."Meanwhile, Russians want out. While 12 percent of Russians believethat the war should be prosecuted to a victorious conclusion,according to a poll reported by Echo radio on July 3, the overwhelmingmajority seem to support the view of Viktor Chernomyrdin’s presssecretary Viktor Kononov who told the radio that "any wayout of this lingering war is good."

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