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Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon dear colleagues!

Today is Russia's Constitution Day. I congratulate you on this holiday. It is symbolic that the first session of the parliament of the Chechen Republic took place today. Today I had the pleasure of congratulating our colleagues in the Chechen Republic on this occasion, one that I think is significant both for the Republic and the whole country. It is an important step towards resolving the situation in the Chechen Republic.

As I have already said, this marks the completion of restoring formal legal constitutional order in the whole country and in the Caucasus in particular, although there is still great deal of work to do there.

I would like to address this to the Prime Minister and all our colleagues: it is necessary to help our Chechen colleagues, including helping them implement plans that they are now discussing with the elected deputies with respect to rebuilding the Republic and Grozny in particular.

I agreed to meet the Republic's leaders in Moscow in a week's time. And I asked that the heads of chambers who were elected today come as well. They were elected after I left; I was not there during their election. And to tell you the truth, I thought it was better that this be done in my absence, rather than have the heads of chambers elected in the President's presence. I asked that they also be invited.

And I shall ask the Prime Minister to determine which Cabinet Members can and should take part in this meeting to discuss the problem of rebuilding the Chechen Republic.