NAZRAN, Russia — Rebels ambushed a Russian border patrol near Chechnya's mountainous frontier with Georgia Wednesday amid indications that Russia may be looking for a political solution to the conflict.
The Russian patrol was moving through the Argun Gorge, the site of heavy fighting between Chechen militants and federal forces for weeks, when the rebels opened fire, the Interfax news agency said.
Russia has said that it is strengthening its presence in southern Chechnya because rebels there are trying to push through into Georgia, a former Soviet republic Moscow has accused of harboring militants.
Fighting in Chechnya has quieted down in recent days, with Moscow apparently unwilling to risk the major losses that would accompany a push into the rebels' strongholds in southern Chechnya. The militants, meanwhile, have ambushed Russian troops in the north but haven't launched any major offensives.
Russian officials have suggested recently that they may be seeking a political solution to the conflict. While Russia insists it will not enter negotiations unless the rebels are disarmed and their leaders arrested, a spokesman said today that Russia had kept in contact with Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov through intermediaries.
Maskhadov "was informed, among other issues, about Moscow's view on what is to be done in the transition to some political process," Sergei Yastrzhembsky, presidential spokesman on Chechnya, said today, according to Interfax.
Even that admission indicates a change in Russia's position. Previously, Russia had labeled Maskhadov a criminal, while today Yastrzhembsky spoke in softer terms, not equating him with other rebel leaders whom he said should be killed or imprisoned.
Russian ground troops entered Chechnya in September after rebels took several villages in neighboring Dagestan, and now control the republic's northern two-thirds. Moscow has linked Chechen militants to apartment building blasts in Russia that killed about 300 people last September.
In Moscow today, the lower house of Russia's parliament gave initial backing to a statement sharply criticizing the Council of Europe's decision to suspend Russia's voting rights over its handling of the Chechnya war.
The Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights body, voted last Thursday to suspend Russia's voting rights in its assembly and asked for Russia's full suspension unless peace talks begin immediately with the rebels.