Chechen Constitution To Be Ready In 2003?

A constitution of the Chechen republic cannot be adopted and approved before 2003, chairman of the Chechen government Stanislav Ilyasov told a briefing in Moscow on Thursday. Concrete work on the main legal document of Chechnya will begin in late 2002-early 2003, after which the constitution is to win approval from a legislative assembly. But the legislative assembly itself still has to be elected, said Ilyasov. This is now impossible due to the situation in region, said the head of the Chechen government. In the opinion of Ilyasov, the constitution must be in correspondence with the Russian legislation and Chechnya must be led by a chief to whom the government of Chechnya is to be subordinated. "For the time being, the Chechen government is considering several versions of a future constitution, but they are yet unwritten to the end", stressed Ilyasov.