Putin meets with Ingush President

Russian President Vladimir Putin met today with President of IngushetiaMurat Zyazikov and discussed with him the urgent issues of the republic.The Russian President proposed to consider an issue of the republic'srelations with its neighbors, the problem of the temporarily displaced people and the issues of recovering from the recent flood that took placein the South of Russia. Putin was interested in what kind of contacts theleaders of Ingushetia had with the Northern Osetia. The Russian Presidentsaid he had recently had a telephone conversation with Osetian leaderAlexander Dzasokhov about that, who, according to the Russian leader, gavea positive assessment of the current relations between the republics. Thesecontacts have a positive influence on the refugees' returning home, it waspointed out during the meeting. Answering Putin's question, the Ingush leader pointed out 27,000 people hadreturned to Chechnya from Ingushetia over the last 15 months. The totalnumber of refugees was 147,000 in Ingushetia, while the current figure is90,000. The Ingush President pointed out he believed his top-priority taskwas to establish friendly relations with neighbors, the RTR televisionstation reported. .