MOSCOW (Islamweb & News Agencies) - A Chechen Resistance leader said he was optimistic about a peace deal with Russia after a lightning visit to Moscow Sunday, for the first publicly acknowledged talks with the Kremlin since war started two years ago.
The talks were the first fruits of a shift in President Vladimir Putin's policy announced in September in apparent response to the suicide attacks on the United States, although the Kremlin has played down suggestions of an about-face.
Akhmed Zakayev, deputy prime minister in Aslan Maskhadov's elected government in hiding, flew in from Turkey and met Viktor Kazantsev, Putin's envoy to southern Russia, at a Moscow airport for two to three hours.
``We were very happy with the meetings. We believe the talks will continue and end positively,'' Zakayev told a news conference after returning to Istanbul. ``The most important goal of these talks is to stop the war in Chechnya.''
The Russian Interfax news agency said Kazantsev described the talks as productive and said the dialogue ``will continue.''
Russian troops now control most of the region and have installed a pro-Moscow Chechen government. But they have failed to kill or capture the main Resistance leaders, or end Resistance attacks on their invading forces.