Shabad, a member of the Russia's Choice faction in the Duma, who talked through the night with Dudayev in a bombed-out village in southwestern Chechnya last week, said there was a difference between Dudayev's public statements and his real perception of the situation.
"He understands, as the other members of the delegation do, the impasse of the situation and wants to find a way out, not wishing to continue a large-scale war in Chechnya," Shabad said at a press conference in Moscow.
Dudayev did, however, repeatedly threaten further acts of terrorism in Russian cities and hinted at his involvement in several explosions in Moscow, Shabad said.
At a rally Monday, Dudayev urged Chechens to continue the war until full victory, according to a spokesman for Russian forces in Chechnya. Chechen chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov later spoke out against Dudayev's fighting talk, revealing an apparent split in the Chechen leadership.
But Shabad, who has met most of the Chechen protagonists during several fact-finding missions to the war-torn region, said that while there was divergence of opinion, it did not represent a serious split.
"There is a real divergence between Maskhadov and Dudayev, as I understood, over the question of Russian forces remaining on Chechen territory," he said. Maskhadov considered it permissible and Dudayev did not, he said.
Despite that, both Maskhadov and Dudayev would fulfill the agreement, Shabad said. "Maskhadov is a very influential figure. He has his plan and his role. It does not follow that he is maneuvering against Dudayev, it is not possible," he said. "It is clear he will keep the agreement and Dudayev is not against that."
Chief negotiator Usman Imayev, whom Dudayev removed from his post just as the military pact was agreed July 30, however, was branded a traitor by the Chechen war council, Shabad said, quoting Dudayev.
"Dudayev will never agree to Chechnya being within the make-up of Russia," Shabad said, adding that it was "unrealistic" to imagine that the Kremlin could keep the breakaway republic within the Russian Federation.
President Boris Yeltsin meanwhile boasted during a meeting with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic that the military agreement in Chechnya meant his own house was back in order.
"We live calmly, in peace and in contact with all the republics in Russia, and between us there are no problems," he told Milosevic, Interfax reported.
In a stark portrayal of the difficulties that remain ahead of a political settlement, Chechen negotiators arrived for talks Thursday morning complaining of "brutal treatment" at Russian checkpoints on the way into Grozny, Interfax reported.
The Chechen convoy, including chief negotiator Khozh-Akhmed Yarikhanov, was barred entry to the capital and only arrived by taking back routes skirting the checkpoints.
Yarikhanov then suspended talks for several hours accusing Russia of reneging on the military accord and dragging its feet on prisoner exchanges.
The Russian side has refused to accept the Chechen list of seven names, arguing that the Chechens hold 54 Russian soldiers.
Two Russian servicemen were killed and six wounded Thursday when their positions were shelled by Chechen rebels, a spokesman for the Russian forces in Chechnya told Interfax. "The situation is still tense in Chechnya," he said.
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