Acting Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, appealed for Western understanding over Russia's military offensive in Chechnya yesterday, and appeared to be adopting a softer line in talks with a senior Council of Europe official.
Shells and bombs, meanwhile, continued to rain down on Grozny in what commanders called the decisive phase of their campaign to gain control of the Chechen capital. Up to 40,000 civilians are cowering in the city's cellars with almost no food.
"We understand the concern of the international community over the events in the North Caucasus," Mr Putin told Lord David Russell-Johnston, president of the parliamentary delegation at the Council. "But we want the international community to show an understanding of our position - by relying on facts about the real situation from truthful information and not from propaganda." Lord Russell-Johnston reiterated demands for a halt to the three-month campaign, but backpedalled on an earlier threat that Russia could face expulsion from the Council of Europe if it persisted with the offensive.
"We are looking for some way of ending the conflict . . . soon," he said after meeting Mr Yegor Stroyev, the speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament. He added that it was too early to speak about expelling Russia.
Russian and Chinese defence ministers met yesterday in Moscow and agreed to step up military co-operation. They also criticised the United States over Washington's plans to build a national missile defence system.
Latvian police said yesterday they had detained a former Russian policeman as a suspect in the assassination of the Russian liberal politician, Galina Starovoitova.
The state police chief, Mr Juris Riksna, said Mr Konstantin Nikulin, a former Russian paramilitary policeman, had been apprehended as a suspect in an unrelated murder committed in Latvia and evidence showed he might have been involved in Starovoitova's death.
"We have operative information on Nikulin's possible connection with St Petersburg groups carrying out ordered murders," Mr Riksna said.
"We sent bullets and cartridge cases [from Nikulin's gun] to St Petersburg, but so far we have not received any reply about his possible connection with Starovoitova's assassination. The confiscated gun is of a very rare brand and it is very expensive. Starovoitova's aide was wounded by the same type of gun."
Starovoitova was shot outside her home in St Petersburg in November 1998. A 52-year-old grandmother, Starovoitova was an outspoken supporter of reforms in Russia and a close supporter of Mr Yeltsin in the early days of Soviet reforms. The assassination occurred during the run-up to a local election in St Petersburg in December 1998.