PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin and the Chechen leader, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, signed a peace accord yesterday, promising an end to 400 years of intermittent conflict between Moscow and the independence seeking north Caucasus region.
"We have signed a peace deal of historic dimensions, putting a full stop to 400 years of history," Interfax news agency quoted Mr Yeltsin as saying after the signing ceremony. "Some kind of war was going on throughout this period and the people felt insecure."
Itar Tass news agency quoted President Maskhadov as saying: "Today we have ended the 400 year confrontation, regardless of those who wanted the war to continue."
The deal aims to turn last year's ceasefire between Moscow and the separatist region, which was conquered by Russia in the last century, into a lasting peace. The truce had halted a 21 month war in which tens of thousands of people died in an ill fated Russian military operation to crush Chechnya's independence drive.
The deal included the withdrawal of Russian troops and the deferral of any decision on Chechnya's status until 2001.
"The war is ending, for the first time in the history of relations between Moscow and Grozny, and the era of peace is starting," President Maskhadov said on arrival in Moscow.
The long history of military conflict between Russia and Chechnya includes a bitter war in the 19th century as the Chechens resisted Russia's drive to conquer the north Caucasus.
The Soviet dictator Josef Stalin deported the whole Chechen people to Central Asia in 1944, accusing them of collaborating with the invading Nazi troops. They were allowed to return only in the 1950s.
The talks yesterday were the first between Mr Yeltsin and President Maskhadov since the latter, a former Soviet colonel who led Chechen military resistance to the Russian forces, was elected Chechen president in January. He has vowed to fight for full in dependence for his region, a demand which Moscow rejects out of hand.
President Yeltsin said the accord consisted of only one point. "A peace treaty has been signed. This is the gist of it."
He had said the talks were aimed at declaring "our firm intention never to use force or threaten to use it in relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ichkeria" - the name favoured by the Chechen separatists.
The meeting took place two days after gunmen kid napped a Russian television crew in Chechnya, posing a new challenge for the separatist leaders. It was the latest in a series of kidnappings, and Russian officials said these, together with two explosions in southern Russia, had complicated the prospects for talks.
President Maskhadov is also expected to meet the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, to sign a series of economic accords. Those would open the way for economic aid from Moscow to the region, much of which was destroyed in the Russian military operations.
Russia spent £195 million to rebuild the Kremlin building housing President Boris Yeltsin's office and his administration, Interfax news agency said yesterday.
The agency quoted the Finance Ministry as saying in a letter to the lower house of parliament that foreign contractors had earned £120 million for the work.
The project included restoring historic artistic details and adding the latest modern equipment to the structure housing the presidential administration.