Chechen president prepared to talk

CHECHEN President Aslan Maskhadov is prepared to hold unconditional talks with the Russian leadership to find a political solution to the bloody conflict in Chechnya, his envoy said yesterday.

“We can only solve it politically,” Akhmed Zakayev, deputy prime minister of Chechnya, told the World Chechen Congress, which opened in Copenhagen despite Russian protests. “President Maskhadov, as before, is ready without any preconditions to sit at the negotiation table. It is up to the Russian leadership.”

EU president Denmark said it had decided to move the venue of a November EU-Russia summit from Copenhagen to Brussels after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to pull out to protest against Denmark’s hosting of the Chechen meeting.