- guardian.co.uk, Friday April 21 2000 02.59 BST
After weeks of speculation about indirect bargaining with President Vladimir Putin, the statement was the strongest signal yet that the search for a peace deal is on.
In an interview in today's edition of the Moscow newspaper Kommersant, Mr Maskhadov says his truce order has already resulted in a lull in the fighting, and that he has instructed his forces to release all their Russian captives and anyone being held hostage.
The Kremlin, pouring reinforcements into the rebel territory, crowed at what it characterised as a Chechen surrender.
"The current initiative, if it really takes place, shows the deep demoralisation in the ranks of the Chechen fighters," said the government's Chechnya spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky.
After months of calling the democratically elected Mr Maskhadov an illegitimate leader and war criminal, Moscow recently opened channels of communications with him and said publicly that he could be pardoned for any alleged crimes.
One of the main reasons it has previously refused to negotiate with him is the prevailing view that he does not control the warlords running parts of Chechnya and that he could not deliver a peace deal. That suspicion persists, and it is not clear if the ceasefire will be observed by guerrilla leaders radicalised by the brutal war fought by Mr Putin's forces.
Mr Maskhadov insisted that he was commander in chief of the Chechen forces and that "practically all Chechen armed units are under centralised direction and definitely subordinate to me".
But he conceded that his writ did not run throughout Chechnya.
The Kremlin has made it a condition of talking to him that he rein in the fiercest warlords and turn over Khattab, a Middle Eastern Islamist, and Shamil Basayev, the most powerful Chechen guerrilla leader. It is unlikely that he can do so.
Most observers say the lull is due to the guerrillas' plan to lie low, then launch ambushes and hit-and-run attacks when the weather improves.
Moscow said yesterday that it had 80,000 men in Chechnya and had sent 500 more into the mountains where the fighting is concentrated.
Colonel General Valery Manilov of the general staff said that no more large ground offensives were planned and Russians would focus on special operations aimed at eradicating the rebel fighters.
