CHECHNYA RELATIVELY CALM AS SIDES SWAP ACCUSATIONS.

There have been no reports of casualties in Chechnya in the past 24 hours though both sides have accused the other of failing to honor the August 31 peace accords. Russia’s deputy internal affairs minister Valeri Fedorov accused the Chechen resistance of setting up their own checkpoints between northern and southern Chechnya and of introducing their own criminal code, while Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev said Russian troops were staging attacks themselves which they later blamed on the Chechen forces. (Itar-Tass, Western agencies, September 12)

Moscow Defends Arrest of Nikitin.