Work to Draft Treaty on Delimitation of Authority Between Federal Centre and Chechnya Will Take 7-8 Months

It will take 7 to 8 months to draft a treaty on delimitation of powers between the federal centre and the Chechen Republic, Federal Minister for Chechnya Stanislav Ilyasov has said to journalists.

In tackling problems of Chechnya revival, an emphasis should be placed on the economic aspect, he stressed.

He recalled that virtually all of the manufacturing industry has been destroyed in Chechnya, there are no small and medium businesses in the republic, and it has lost the oil refining potential. Chechnya used to process 25 million tonnes of oil from different regions of Russia. Today oil refining in Chechnya is at the zero level. There is no need to restore the previous volume of oil refining, believes Stanislav Ilyasov.

As regards the results of the Friday meeting of the governmental commission for rehabilitating Chechnya's economy and welfare, Ilyasov said a mechanism of paying compensations to the people of Chechnya for the lost property and housing will be worked out before the end of April.

Payments will most probably resume in the second half of this year. In Ilyasov's opinion, half of those entitled to the compensation will get it this year. "We will fulfil the president's instruction", Ilyasov assured.