MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Chechnya's leaders believe that talks with separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov and his foreign envoy Akhmed Zakayev would be useless.
"Neither Akhmed Zakayev, nor his boss Aslan Maskhadov control illegal paramilitary formations," Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov told a news conference at the Interfax main office on Tuesday.
"Since the beginning of the 1999 military campaign, the actual leader of the illegal paramilitary formations, the man who controls the financial flows, masterminds and carries out the terrorist acts, is Shamil Basayev," he said.
As for the efforts of the Soldiers' Mothers Committee to engage in talks with Zakayev, he said they would bring no results.
"Neither Zakayev nor Maskhadov have any influence on Basayev. Whatever they decide, their decisions are not binding on Shamil Basayev," Dzhabrailov said.
The result of a possible meeting between soldiers' mothers and Zakayev will be a "still-born child," he said.
"Zakayev, as the person involved in the talks, does not fit the aims and tasks set by the soldiers' mothers," Dzhabrailov said.
He said that he has no information on the involvement of any Russian officials in talks with Maskhadov. "I cannot confirm or refute reports that talks are underway in Maskhadov. But we (Chechen leaders - Interfax) proceed from the Russian president's December 2002 statement that the federal administration will not conduct any talks with Maskhadov," he stressed.
According to Dzhabrailov, Maskhadov "has really assumed full responsibility for terrorists' actions on the Chechen territory, effectively becoming their official ideologist."
However, at the moment "Maskhadov is not a leader, but a hostage of illegal armed formations," the official stressed. "Having got into this trap, he cannot get out of it. Neither Basayev nor other field commanders will allow him to get out alive or to surrender," he said.
Asked whether rebels will have a chance to be elected to Chechnya's future parliament, Dzhabrailov voiced his opinion that "members of illegal armed formations will hardly succeed in entering the ranks of lawmakers, as we have the law-enforcement system that monitors the situation."
At the same time, he did not rule out that many people will be elected because of "criticizing the republic's government or other governing bodies."
"Protest moods are very strong in Chechnya, and they are primarily caused by the high unemployment rate," Dzhabrailov noted.
According to him, 75 percent of employable Chechen residents do not have a job. "This circumstance will have a very strong influence on results of parliamentary elections," he said.