Chechens, Russians To Resume Peace Talks

The Russian military command and Chechen separatists have agreed to resume peace talks “in the near future,” an envoy from a group that brokered past negotiations in the war said Monday.

Tim Guldimann of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe will fly to Moscow today to set up talks, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

His peacemaking in Chechnya came on a day that rain and fog grounded Russian warplanes and helicopters and slowed a ground offensive against a rebel base near Shatoi in Chechnya’s southern mountains.

The OSCE has brokered several rounds of talks between the rebels and Russians, including the cease-fire agreement that President Boris Yeltsin reached on May 27 with rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.