| Tadeusz Iwinski, a rapporteur on Chechnya for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said that a dialogue with separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov would be possible if he distanced himself from Shamil Basayev-type rebels. Iwinski told a news conference in the Interfax main office on Wednesday that if any dialogue with Maskhadov could have helped avoid those terrorist attacks that have recently occurred in Russia, then this dialogue would have been an option. But in order to make this dialogue possible, Maskhadov needs to distance himself from odious rebels like, for instance, Basayev, he said, adding that he thinks that any dialogue with Maskhadov is an unrealistic option today. Iwinski and Andreas Gross, also a PACE rapporteur on Chechnya, recently returned from Chechnya, where they worked on a report on the situation in the republic for PACE's autumn session. |