Communist leader demands emergency session on accord

THE Russian Communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, called yesterday for an emergency session of the upper house of parliament…

THE Russian Communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, called yesterday for an emergency session of the upper house of parliament on the peace accord signed by the national security chief, Gen Alexander Lebed, and Chechen separatists.

Gen Lebed himself said a parliamentary vote on the accord would help resolve the deep Russian divisions over the deal, Interfax quoted his spokesman as saying yesterday.

Mr Zyuganov, leader of the powerful Communist group in the lower house, was quoted by Interfax as saying the Federation Council (upper house) "cannot remain on the sidelines of questions affecting Russian territorial integrity."

Its members could not allow "the settlement of the Chechen conflict to occur to the detriment of Russian territorial integrity."

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On Tuesday several leaders in Russia's Northern Caucasus region said they would like the Federation Council to examine the peace accord, Interfax reported.

Mr Zyuganov said the Communist Party believed the government's policy on the breakaway southern Russian republic had led to a "moral and political defeat for Russia and to the transfer of power to gangsters."

Gen Lebed's spokesman, Mr Alexander Barkhatov, said Gen Lebed was confident that the examination of the peace agreement by the Federation Council would enable Russians to "come up with a united front."

He said, "Alexander Lebed's peace initiative does not go beyond the framework of Russian legislation. He has acted in accordance with the powers given to him by the Russian President."

President Yeltsin has approved the peace accord signed on Saturday between Gen Lebed and the Chechen rebel chief of staff, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, to end the 20 month conflict.

Both communists and hardline nationalists in parliament see the plan as a sell out to the Chechen rebels and have denounced the delayed decision on Chechnya's status as a threat to Russia's political integrity. The deal ended the war and froze the problematic issue of Chechnya's political status until the end of 2001.

Gen Lebed will leave today on a new two day visit to Chechnya to discuss further peace prospects with the rebel leadership.

. President Yeltsin, keeping eerily quiet on Gen Lebed's Chechnya peace deal, put his ambitious envoy firmly in his place yesterday by heaping praise on the man Gen Lebed has said he cannot work with.

The Interior Minister, Mr Anatoly Kulikov, got an award and a warm congratulatory letter for his 50th birthday yesterday, written in a flowery style.

"I view your professional and personal qualities with great respect", said the letter, which followed the award of a medal on Tuesday "for services to the fatherland".