(8 Oct 1997) Russian/Nat
President Boris Yeltsin's personal representative to the breakaway region of Chechnya has been relieved of his duties and replaced by a lower official.
President Boris Yeltsin gave the job as Chechen envoy to a lower-ranked official Wednesday in a move clearly aimed at slighting the breakaway republic's leaders.
Yeltsin released Ivan Rybkin, the head of his policy-making Security Council, from the side job as presidential representative in Chechnya and gave the post to Valentin Vlasov, a little-known administration official.
Rybkin's removal appears to represent a downgrading of Moscow's relations with the rebel Caucasus region, where it fought a bloody 21-month war with separatist guerrillas in 1994-96.
Ivan Rybkin, Secretary of Russia's Security Council, had given great importance to Russia's relations with Chechnya by having the post of Presidential representative to Chechnya.
Rybkin's appointment was designed to illustrate to Chechnya that Russia attached great importance to negotiations with the small Muslim region.
But many officials in Moscow have accused Rybkin of being too soft on the Chechen separatists, who last week expelled the entire staff of Russia's mission in Chechnya from their headquarters in the capital Grozny.
The Chechen decision followed Moscow's refusal to grant an air corridor for the republic's Vice President, Vakha Arsanov, to fly to nearby Azerbaijan.
Now that he has been replaced by a lower official, the overall status of the Russian mission in Chechnya has been demoted.
This blow to Chechnya comes at a time when the small nation is pushing for recognition of independence.
Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov had proposed that he and Yeltsin meet to sort out their differences, but Rybkin said that such a meeting was 'unnecessary'.
Rybkin said that Yeltsin would not meet with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov because there were lower officials to do that, adding yet another blow to Chechnya's status.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
'Its not necessary to repeat it again but I will. Yeltsin will not be meeting with Maskhadov because at this time there's no reason for them to meet.'
SUPER CAPTION: Ivan Rybkin, Secretary of Russian Security Council, former Russian Representative to Chechnya
Rybkin, who announced the decision, said the idea behind the move was to have a lower-ranked official representing the president in Chechnya, changing the way the Caucuses are dealt with.
The number of officials representing the Kremlin in the Chechen capital, Grozny, also will be reduced from 19 to five or six, Rybkin said.
SOUNDBITE: (Russia)
"Today what has happened, and this has been discussed in a meeting with President Yeltsin, is a change in the way the Caucuses are being approached, the way the problem is being dealt with and its character. We are talking about a change politically, economically and socially in the Northern Caucasus."
SUPER CAPTION: Ivan Rybkin, Secretary of Russian Security Council, former Russian Representative to Chechnya
Chechnya considers itself independent and has been running its own affairs since Russian troops withdrew last fall following a two-year war, but Moscow says the Muslim republic is and will remain part of Russia.
His replacement, Vlasov, would have the same government rank as those representatives in other Russian regions, he said.
Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov accused Russia of failing to fulfil its obligations under the peace agreements signed earlier this year and imposing what he described as an economic blockade of the southern republic.
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