Russian President Vladimir Putin said today Chechnya would receive the broadest autonomy possible following the separatist republic's overwhelming vote in favor of a new pro-Moscow constitution.
Chechnya will receive "autonomy in the broadest sense of the word," Mr Putin said in televised remarks during a meeting in the Kremlin with Mr Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration.
In his most extensive remarks yet on the outcome of Sunday's referendum, Mr Putin also dangled the promise of monetary compensation to civilians whose property was destroyed in the three-and-a-half year war.
"We must restore the economy of Chechnya, we must create new jobs, but there are more immediate problems.... We must restore villages, ruined settlements, we must clear up Grozny, and restore the capital of the Chechen republic.
In a controversial poll which was not monitored by Western observers, Chechens overwhelmingly voted on Sunday in favor of a new constitution that cements the republic's status as a part of Russia.
The vote was in part aimed at ending any claims to the presidency by separatist Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected to head the separatist North Caucasus region in January 1997, in a vote confirmed as valid by the OSCE.
Chechnya has been ravaged by conflict since 1994, with just three years of relative peace after the first war between Russian forces and Chechen rebels ended in August 1996 and the second broke out in October 1999.
Some 80 per cent of all buildings in the center of Grozny have been destroyed and only 30 per cent of the city has electricity.
AFP