PRIMAKOV SHOWS CAUTION.

On November 6, former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov told Ekho Moskvy Radio in a live interview that, in his opinion, it is necessary to introduce special rule into Chechnya and to create the post of governor general of Chechnya, an official who “would report directly to the president [of Russia], while all local organizations would report to the governor general.” Primakov added that “in no case should purely Chechen organizations and branches of power be liquidated, inasmuch as they would serve to attract an ever greater part of the population of Chechnya” (Chechenskaya Respublika, Kavkaz.strana.ru, November 6). Two days previously, on November 4, Primakov published a lengthy, thought-provoking essay entitled, “A War with Islam Can Split Russia,” on the pages of Izvestia.