From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 11/29/2005 3:32 AM
Chechen leader set to meet rebels
Guard outside a Grozny polling station
Some 24,000 police and troops were deployed for the polls
The Kremlin-backed President of Chechnya, Alu Alkhanov, has said he is planning to go to Brussels to meet Chechen separatist representatives.
Russia has refused to negotiate with the separatist rebels since hostilities flared up again in 1999.
Mr Alkhanov was speaking as Chechen officials announced that a pro-Moscow parliament had been elected in the troubled North Caucasus republic.
"We are open to those who want peace," Mr Alkhanov said.
He did not name the separatists he is planning to meet.
His press service told the BBC he might meet former members of the separatist parliament set up by the late rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.
Election criticised
The pro-Kremlin party United Russia won 61.5% of the vote in Chechnya's parliamentary elections - but observers reported irregularities and the separatists dismissed the ...
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