Yabloko's leader Grigory Yavlinsky thinks that the Russian Government must hold negotiations with representatives of Chechnya's leadership or authoritative people in the Republic to find partners among the population. This was announced by Grigory Yavlinsky on Wednesday in a speech at the state television and radio company "Altai" during his short election tour in Barnaul (the Altai Territory, Siberia).

According to Grigory Yavlinsky, one-third of all the armed men are subordinate to the President of Chechnya Aslan Maskhadov: therefore, if an agreement is reached with him, they may stop confronting the federal troops. Grigory Yavlinsky thinks that the federal troops will only win in the war in Chechnya, if they have the support of the local population, and that it is necessary to conduct negotiations with representatives of Chechnya to find partners there.

Speaking about the prospects of setting up electoral blocs with some other parties and movements before the elections, in particular with the Fatherland - All Russia bloc (Otechestvo - Vsya Rossiya - OVR, Grigory Yavlinsky remarked that he has good relations with its leader Evgeni Primakov, but that Yabloko did not believe that ti was possible to have closer co-operation with this bloc. Yavlinsky said that this was because the OVR included corrupt bureaucrats and leaders.

Yabloko's leader thinks that OVR "does not has a single ordinary man, only bureaucrats, directors and governors".

After his speech at Altai television, Grigory Yavlinsky held a meeting with the electorate in Barnaul and then left for Novosibirsk.

Based on Interfax information.