Nazran - Russia will open peace talks with Chechen rebels within the next three to four months, Chechnya's separatist President, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, predicted in an interview yesterday.
"The Russians find themselves in Chechnya in the same impasse which led them during the first war [December 1994 August 1996] to launch negotiations" with rebel forces, he said. The conflict "will last another three to four months, no doubt, and then negotiations with Moscow will start", added the Chechen leader, who said he was currently stationed in the south-eastern mountains of Chechnya.