RUSSIAN, CHECHEN INTERIOR MINISTERS SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT.

Chechen interior minister Kazbek Mokhashev met yesterday in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Anatoli Kulikov, and also with Security Council Secretary Ivan Rybkin. To judge from the brief reports issued afterwards, the meetings were businesslike and productive. On behalf of their two governments, Mokhashev and Kulikov signed an agreement on combating crime, while Mokhashev and Rybkin agreed to set up a joint committee to investigate the whereabouts of Russian POWs and MIAs. Rybkin appealed again to the Russian Duma to grant an amnesty to participants in the Chechen war since this will, he says, help to expedite the release of Russian POWs. Rybkin also announced that the Chechen authorities have given provisional agreement to Moscow’s request for polling stations to be set up outside Chechen territory on January 27 to allow refugees to cast their votes in Chechnya’s presidential and parliamentary elections. Rybkin said polling stations would be opened in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, and Stavropol. (RTR, Itar-Tass, Interfax, January 14)

Cyprus Denies Delay in Missile Purchase.