Speaking at a press conference in the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Saturday, Mr. Alkhanov said he appealed primarily to the guys who had been cheated or indoctrinated into rebel units and that he and his government were ready to make concessions for those who would express willingness to surrender their arms and go back onto a peaceful track.
At the same time, Mr. Alkhanov reemphasized that negotiations with the rebel leaders Aslan Maskhadov amd Shamil Basayev were absolutely out of the question. "I am not going to negotiate with either Maskhadov nor Basayev as there is nothing [for me] to talk about with them," he stressed, saying that the only question he would like to put to the two men was why they had not done anything for their people back in 1996 and 1997, when they were in power. "Instead of building the republic, they drew the people into a fierce war," the Chechen President said emphatically.
