CHECHNYA ASKS FOR FORMER OFFICIALS TO BE HANDED OVER FOR TRIAL.

Chechen special envoy Ruslan Kutaev met with the head of the Russian government’s administrative department, Sergei Stepashin, on April 22 and handed him a message from Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov for Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Kutaev limited himself to saying that the message "contains President Maskhadov’s proposals on working out the basic principles of relations between Chechnya and the Russian Federation and [other] CIS member countries." The two men also discussed the issue of handing over to the present Chechen government some members of the republic’s former Moscow-backed government — led by Doku Zavgaev and Salambek Khadzhiev — who have been accused of massive embezzlement. Of that group, only former Grozny mayor Bislan Gantemirov is presently in custody.

In Djohar-gala’s opinion, Gantemirov is far from the only person in the pro-Moscow leadership who is guilty of embezzlement. Nevertheless, referring to shortcomings in the Chechen justice system, Vladimir Zorin, chairman of the Duma’s Nationalities Committee, conveyed to the Monitor his certitude that "the Russian government will unequivocally refuse to hand over these economic criminals to the authorities of Chechnya."

Chechen Leadership Invites Arab Country Ambassadors to Establish Economic Cooperation.