DEADLINE FOR STATUS DETERMINATION
It has been said, that the constitutional status of Chechnya should be decided not later than 31 December 2001.
In the agreement (10) from 31 August 1996, made i Khasavyurt between national security chief, Aleksandr Lebed, og, på det tidspunkt, chief commander of the chechen forces, Aslan Maskhadov, is written in point 1, that "an agreement on the basis for mutual relations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic, to be determined in accordance with universally recognised principles and norms of international law, should be achieved by 31 December 2001".
By looking deeper into the text it appears, that four claims have to be fulfilled not later than 31 Dec 2001 in the future agreement:
1) It shall be "basis for mutual relations"
2) The relationerne shall be "between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic"
3) It shall be made "in accordance with ... international law"
4) It has to be achived not later than "31 December 2001"
Nothing in this point says, that Chechnya's constitutional status has to be decided in this future agreement.
By signing the Khasavyurt Agreement RF commit itself to fulfil it. That means, that the state consider it as possible and consider all conditions for fulfilling the agreement to be fulfilled.
In the Khasavyurt Agreement is mentioned, that a future agreement shall be made latest in 5 years. Therefore, by signing the Khasavyurt Agreement RF has committed itself to make this future agreement. Which implies, that RF at the moment of signing the Khasavyurt Agreement in 1996 consider it to be possible and therefore consider all conditions for fulfilling the future agreement to be fulfilled, when the future agreement will be signed.
This future agreement shall be based on international law. As mentioned before, only independent states can make agreements on international law. Therefore, this future agreement, mentioned in the Khasavyurt Agreement, shall be made between two independent states, and the condition is, that Chechnya is an independent state at the moment of the signing of this future agreement.
Therefore, RF's considering Chechnya as being an independent state at the moment of signing the future agreement has to be the condition for signing the Khasavyurt Agreement.
By signing the Khasavyurt Agreement the russian state has declared, that it considers Chechnya to be an independent state at this future moment.
So, Chechnya's status is not going to be decided later on as it is already a fact in 1996, that RF has decided to recognize Chechnya as an independent state not later than at the moment of signing the future agreement. This is in accordance with the fact, that nothing is mentioned in the Khasavyurt Agreement about deciding Chechnya's status in a later agreement.
It is worth mentioning, that an immediate recognition of Chechnya as an independent state as early as 1996 is not excluded.
By looking at the Khasavyurt Agreement one more time it appears clearly, that these 4 claims mentioned in subsection 1 actually is fulfilled by the treaty from 1997:
1) The treaty says, that it shall be "basis for further agreements and accords on the full range of relations"
2) The treaty is about relations "between Russian Federation and Chechen Republic Ichkeria"
3) The parties agree to "develop relations on ... international law"
4) The treaty is signed "12 May 1997"
This is in accordance with the fact, that this treaty, as mentioned before, was made on international law between two states, recognized by both parties.
"Should be achieved by", followed by a date, is a usual expression used to indicate a deadline for achieving goals of political issues and so on. Therefore it is a logical consideration to understand the expression in this case that way, that the future agreement skould be signed "not later than" 31 December 2001.
Some commentators have claimed, that the expression should be understood that way, that the signing of this future agreement was postponed until 2001. Since "2001" in the Khasavyurt Agreement is only used in the connection "31 December 2001", these commentators might have ment, that the signing was postponed until this specific date.
Whether the commentators mean, that the agreement should be signed "not later than" or "not before and not later than" the 31 December 2001, is unclear.
Immediately, nobody, including the two states and the commentators, has ever claimed, that a meeting was agreed between Russia and Chechnya on 31 December 2001, and therefore a planned meeting on this day seems to be quite unlikely. Therefore, the expression "should be achieved by" more likely means, that the future agreement between Russia and Chechnya should be signed "not later than" 31 December 2001.
THE MEETING IN NAZRAN
10 June 1996 a meeting was held in Nazran, Ingushetia, between the representatives of the two parties, Russia and Chechnya. In relation to the meeting some documents (11) was drawn up.
The first document is "Protocol of the Meeting of the Commissions on the Negotiations Regarding a Ceasefire and Cessation of Hostilities and on Measures to Settle the Armed Conflict on the Territory of the Chechen Republic", dated by 10 June 1996 in Nazran .
The second is "Protocol of Meeting of the Working Groups to Locate Missing Persons and to Free Forcibly Detained Persons (Second Nazran Protocol)", also dated by 10 June 1996.
The first protocol is signed by "V. Mikhailov, chairman of the Negotiations Commission formed by order of the Government of the Russian Federation" and "A. Maskhadov, chairman of the Negotiations Commission formed by order of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria".
So, that means, that each governments were responsible for the decisions on the meeting. Specially, they were responsible for the signed text.
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