An envoy of the Chechen rebel leader, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, said after talks in Moscow yesterday, the first publicly acknowledged contacts since war started two years ago, he was optimistic about a peace deal with the Kremlin.
Mr Akhmed Zakayev, who flew to Moscow for previously unannounced talks, told a news conference in Istanbul he held three hours of talks with President Vladimir Putin's envoy to southern Russia, Mr Viktor Kazantsev. "We were very happy with the meetings. We believe the talks will continue and end positively," he said. "The most important goal of these talks was to stop the war in Chechnya."
Mr Zakayev said before his arrival in Moscow that he was coming with specific instructions from Mr Maskhadov to negotiate an end to the campaign, although other Chechen officials warned against expecting any breakthroughs in the first round of talks.
"This meeting comes as a result of Mr Putin's statement from September 24th, in which he invited the Chechen side to open dialogue with his representative, and negotiate conditions for ending the war," Mr Zakayev said.
Russia refused to allow mediators at talks with the rebels, who continue guerrilla resistance after having been driven from much of the northern Caucasus region by Russian forces. But Mr Zakayev was accompanied to Moscow from Istanbul by a Turkish politician. "The meetings were very positive," the politician, Mr Besim Tibuk, head of the small Liberal Democratic Party, told the same news conference. "These talks were a first step. The Turkish government were informed but we didn't go there on behalf of the Turkish government. We went independently," he added
"The meeting laid the ground for a very serious dialogue," said Mr Kazantsev's assistant Mr Maxim Fedorenko. The date for another meeting or its specific agenda have not yet been set. "The meeting was conducted in a friendly, benevolent atmosphere."
While inconclusive, the talks marked the most vivid signal to date that both sides were looking for a way out of a simmering guerrilla war that has limited public support and looks unlikely to be decided on the battlefield.
After denouncing the Chechen leadership as outlaws who had no place at the negotiating table, Mr Putin in September conceded he would allow for talks with separatists who had first renounced their support of "terrorist" rebel leaders.
Kremlin officials said last night they were willing to conduct new rounds of negotiations at a later, still undisclosed date as long as they were held within Russia and did not involve foreign intermediaries.