By empty (4/21/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

President Vladimir Putin has likened the European Union\'s call for Moscow to establish a dialogue with the Chechen separatists to bin Laden\'s truce proposal to Europe. \"As previously, we are now being urged to start talks and a dialogue with the people whom we and our partners in Muslim countries consider terrorists. Terrorist Number One, bin Laden, made a truce proposal to Europe which, as far as I know, was rejected,\" Putin said at a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Lipetsk on Wednesday.

By empty (4/21/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Yerevan is holding talks with Tehran on constructing a gas pipeline between Iran and Armenia to fully satisfy Armenia\'s internal demand for gas, President Robert Kocharian said at a Tuesday press conference. No other options are being discussed, because they could be problematic for Armenia, Kocharian said. \"We are discussing this project only with the purpose to improve Armenia\'s energy security,\" the president said.

By empty (4/21/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A Turkish mercenary was killed in a federal special operation in Chechnya\'s Vedeno district, a military spokesman told Interfax. \"The man who was killed had a passport under the name of Turkish citizen Semek Yusif [transliterated from Russian] with a Georgian visa, opened on July 7, 2002; a card of the Turkish Taekwondo Federation, issued in February 1991; a lawyer\'s card, issued in February 1996; and other documents with Turkish entries,\" said spokesman Col. Ilya Shabalkin.