#1 - JRL 7236
CHECHEN WAR RECEDES INTO PAST: PUTIN'S ENVOY

ROSTOV-ON-DON, JUNE 23 (RIA Novosti's Sofia Brykanova) - Don't be afraid of Chechnya, Viktor Kazantsev, presidential envoy plenipotentiary to the Southern federal district, calls on European financiers.

"The Chechen war is as good as over - it's rather virtual than actual," he said to delegates of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Chechen phobias have receded into the past now that the republic is dynamically getting back to peacetime life, and economic rehabilitation is on, reassured the federal envoy.

An EBRD delegation is making a routine visit to European Russia's south to debate with regional spokesmen prospects for an investment increase in the many local economic fields.