"Western States keep playing with, and around, Russia."

"I assure you, it would be much more pleasant for me to be an ordinary voter in peaceful Chechnya than the president of a republic at war."

"It is not advantageous for Russia in its present state to fight against Chechnya. The army is a mess. It must be made combat ready. That will take time. Russia has a lot of economic, social and political problems much more important than Chechnya."

"Independence is not a whim or an ambition. It is the necessary condition of our survival as an ethnic group."

"We will liberate our country from the occupying forces and put an end to relations between Russia and the Chechen State, no matter how difficult the task may be."

"Until fighting ends and there are conditions, which allow the free expression of will by the people, there can be no elections and elections are not held in these circumstances anywhere in the world."