"They (Russian leaders) can condemn us, but we are not going to shoot. We're not going to use tanks against the people. We are not going any further," General Ivan Babichev, commander of a stalled Russian Army column in Grozny, Dec. 16.
"The best way out of the complex situation would be to cease fire and sit down at the negotiating table without any kind of preconditions ... I believe that peace and calm will soon triumph in the Chechen republic." Yeltsin, Dec. 15.
"If Grozny does not use the chance it has been given today, tomorrow will be too late," Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, Dec. 15.
"There will be no storming of Grozny ... It is a densely populated Russian city." Aide to the prime minister, Valery Grishin, Dec. 14.
"Grozny will shortly be encircled and only capitulation of Dudayev's forces would stop bloodshed." Nationalities Minister Nikolai Yegorov, Dec. 13.
"There will be no big war. The conflict has not been spinning out of Chechnya so far ... The attitude of all the republics has been calm, including the North Caucasus republics." Yeltsin, Dec. 13.
"All constitutional measures must be taken to disarm and liquidate illegal armed groupings." Security Council statement, Dec. 7.
"There will be no military solution to the question." Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, Dec. 6.
"Imposing a state of emergency is really a last resort which I hope is not under discussion either now or in the future." Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Dec. 3.
"It would be possible to resolve all questions in two hours with one parachute regiment." Grachev, Nov. 27.
"This is a Chechen question and it is they who must resolve it." Yeltsin, Oct. 4.
"We do not forsee any kind of physical intervention in the autonomous republic." Presidential spokesman Anatoly Krasikov, July 28.
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