President Yeltsin's willingness to concede further autonomy to Chechnya, while insisting it should remain part of Russia, augurs well for the future of the Caucasus region which has been one of Europe's least stable places since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Russia's openness to compromise came after an intensive series of talks which culminated in a Moscow summit between Mr Yeltsin and the Chechen President, Mr Aslan Maskhadov. A lot remains to be done to consolidate relationships between Moscow and Grozny. Mr Yeltsin himself admitted, for example, that of 140 million dollars sent by Russia to Chechnya to help rebuild its post-war economy, only 20 million appear to have reached the Chechen national bank. Economic aid for the devastated territory was one of the main planks of the agreement to end the war reached between Mr Maskhadov and the former Russian security chief, Gen Alexander Lebed. With Gen Lebed having since been sacked by Mr Yeltsin and parts of the peace treaty left unfulfilled, it is hardly surprising that "ultras" on the Chechen side have worked to undermine Mr Maskhadov's authority through a series of kidnappings. Truly encouraging was the ability of the Russian and Chechen Presidents to sit down, apparently quite amicably, to constitutional talks. It is less than a year since the end of a war in which up to 80,000 people are believed to have lost their lives and in which horrible atrocities were committed. Mr Yeltsin has been blamed by Chechens for the total destruction of Grozny, a city the size of Belfast, while Mr Maskhadov is remembered by Russians as the leader of a guerrilla force which humiliated the Russian army.
In recent days also, the Georgian President, Mr Eduard Shevardnadze, has found it possible to sit down with the leader of the Abkhaz separatists, Mr Vladislav Ardzinba. Describing the talks as a "psychological breakthrough", Mr Shevardnadze expressed hope that another seemingly intractable problem in the Caucasus may be on the road to resolution. With the combined help of Russian soldiers and armed bands of Chechens, the Abkhaz drove Georgia out of the region in September 1993 following a short war in which 10,000 people died and 200,000 Georgian refugees were forced to flee the region. Politically the defeat seriously damaged Mr Shevardnadze's prestige at home and abroad while Mr Ardzinba's status has been diminished by an economic blockade of his small but exceptionally beautiful Black Sea enclave.
The peoples of the Caucasus are noted for harbouring fierce grudges over generations. Yet despite the tradition of the vendetta, the personal animosities and the massive recent casualties, leaders have managed to get together to discuss the future. There is, perhaps, a lesson here for politicians closer to home.