MOSCOW PUBLISHES DRAFT TREATY ON STATUS OF CHECHNYA.

The Russian government unilaterally published May 29 a draft treaty on Chechnya’s status within the Russian Federation and the division of powers between the central government and Chechnya. Sergei Shakhrai, known as one of the war’s initiators, is the main author of the draft. Russian officials failed to discuss the text and its publication with Chechen resistance leaders during their Kremlin visit. The OSCE mission chief in Chechnya, Tim Guldimann, who facilitated those talks, said May 29 that he was "relatively critical" of the tenor of Russian president Boris Yeltsin’s statements in Chechnya and his failure to inform the Chechen delegation of his intention to visit there. (Russian, Western agencies, May 29 & 30) These unilateral steps corroborate the impression that Moscow consented to the talks for a military respite, rather than for a negotiated political settlement of the conflict.

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