Meeting participants – Head of the Chechen Republic Ahmad Kadyrov, Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic Anatoly Popov and Russian Minister for Chechnya Affairs Stanislav Ilyasov – briefed President Putin on the current situation in the republic and on measures being taken to normalise the situation and return to a peaceful life.
President Putin stressed that successful solution of political, social and economic problems in the region was the best groundwork for peaceful life in Chechnya.
A key condition for political stabilisation following the adoption of a republican constitution, he said, was to sign a treaty on the delimitation of terms of reference and powers of federal and regional authorities. The President urged further work on the draft document and its public discussion.
Other remaining aspects of political settlement, according to him, were an amnesty and a gradual devolution of law enforcement functions to the republic’s interior bodies.
The meeting dealt with measures to restore Chechnya’s socio-economic infrastructure. Specifically, it concerned itself with the reconstruction of housing and communal services, health and education facilities, and the clearing away of rubble in the republic’s capital, Grozny.
President Putin called the Chechen leaders’ attention to the need to compensate the republic’s residents for the loss of housing. Mr Ilyasov promised the President to start cash payments in September 2003.