RUSSIA signed a deal yesterday with the leader of the Chechen rebels to end fighting in the breakaway region from next Saturday, in what President Yeltsin called a historic moment.
"We have resolved the key problem of peace in Chechnya", he said after the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, signed the peace deal with Mr Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. "This is a historic day, a historic moment", Itar Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
Mr Yandarbiyev came to the balks despite the assassination last month of his predecessor, Dzhokhar Dudayev, in a suspected Russian rocket attack, clearly hoping to exploit pressures on Mr Yeltsin before the June 16th presidential election.
But the talks skirted the main political issue - Chechnya's future status - and the atmosphere of the signing ceremony was far from cordial, indicating a substantial lack of trust.
Tass said the deal provided for halt to military activities, an exchange of all prisoners within two weeks and a continuation of negotiations to settle the conflict.
Analysts say the agreement, if it bakes hold, would be a big boost to Mr Yeltsin's chances of beating Off an election challenge by the communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, whose spokesman welcomed the peace deal, but said it should have been signed earlier.
Television pictures of the signing showed both delegations looking tense, with both Mr Yeltsin and Mr Chernomyrdin chivvying the other delegates to add their signatures to the back of the brief document, the exact contents of which were not revealed. "Just sign it, what's the difference?", Mr Chernomyrdin said grumpily in reply to an inaudible remark from the Chechen side of the table.
Mr Yeltsin said he would give the order to stop military activities to the Interior Minister, Mr Anatoly Kulikov, who sat beside him at the table, and to the Defence Minister, Gen Pavel Grachev, who was absent.
When Mr Yandarbiyev asked whether the agreement would he fulfilled, Mr Yeltsin said: "We have no problems of authority. And will the Chechen side fulfil the agreement?" Mr Yandarbiyev replied: "We have even fewer authority problems."