Chechen political, religious and business figures address Russian President

Vladimir Putin has received the address of Chechen political, religious and business figures, as well as elders, to the people of the Chechen Republic.

The Russian president's press service reports that the head of state intends to discuss as soon as possible with the statement's authors the measures suggested by them to accelerate the constitutional process in Chechnya and other steps aimed at reaching accord in the republic.

A number of Chechen political, religious and business figures addressed the people of Chechnya, stating the importance of expediting the constitutional process in the republic.

"We, as well as the whole people of the Chechen Republic, are going through the troubles and privations that fell to the lot of the long-suffering Chechen soil," reads the document whose text RIA Novosti received on Friday. "Today we have the right to demand an end to terror, murders, kidnappings, outrages and humiliation of our nationals. The last drop that made the cup run over was the monstrous crime committed by terrorists - the hostage taking in Moscow that entailed the death of innocent people." All those behind this misanthropic act are cynically provoking the aggravation of the already hard situation in the Chechen Republic, substituting for the process of its people's self-determination the egotistic interests of a group of persons who plunged us into the catastrophe, says the statement.

"One can endlessly speak on our sufferings and irreparable losses, but the only way to end the tragedy is to join hands in the name of national accord," the document points out.

The statement's authors emphasize that in the conditions when there is no Constitution of the Chechen Republic, based upon the conventional principles and norms of law and adopted at a national referendum, "organization of a large-scale constitutional process is a vitally important task." The referendum on the Constitution of Chechnya should put a period to the struggle of the Chechen people for its rights. "Here lies the key to the way out of the vicious circle of senseless bloodshed," the document notes.