We can't stop soldiers training for a sudden operation because people are supposed to be allowed on

"We can't stop soldiers training for a sudden operation because people are supposed to be allowed on to the land that day. Regardless of the location of a training area, safety of both the public and troops is paramount. Does the MoD have a timescale for opening up more of its land? The ministry is publishing a review of defence strategy in the spring, following consultation with a wide range of statutory and voluntary bodies. We are keen to produce an annual stewardship report and be subject to performance indicators." What concrete action are you taking to open up more training areas? Public access is a principle of defence estate management, according to the MoD, which has adopted the slogan "striking a balance". It points to the publication of a booklet "Walks on MoD land", and work to resolve rights of way issues on Salisbury Plain and to enhance permissive bridleways across the training area at Catterick, North Yorkshire "Access to MoD land is a success story," said Mr Kilfoyle "This is not something we shy away from. A campaign for greater access by walkers and ramblers to some 590,000 acres of land owned by the Ministry of Defence was launched by the Independent on Sunday last week. Much of it is not in constant use for Army training and is closed unnecessarily to the public. In total, the MoD has 12 major training areas based on regional centres, such as Otterburn in Northumberland National Park, parts of Dartmoor, and Pembrokeshire, including the Castlemartin firing range. Our criticism of MoD policy last week prompted the ministry to invite the newspaper to a meeting headed by defence minister Peter Kilfoyle and attended by Ian Andrews, the chief executive of defence estates, and Colonel James Baker, the MoD's head of conservation.

Here, we provide the MoD's response to the points made at the start of our campaign. How serious are you about taking action to improve access? "We want to be quite open and are looking at how to improve the availability of information and get more up-to-date information," said Mr Andrews "In a way, the Right to Roam is catching up with the MoD We have changed attitudes and we believe in this. Lenin was bald, Stalin was hairy, Khrushchev was bald, Brezhnev was hairy, Andropov was bald, Chernenko was hairy, Gorbachev was bald and Yeltsin is hairy Mr Putin's straw-coloured hair is thin. To those who hope for his ultimate rise, he is balding promisingly.. A campaign for greater access by walkers and ramblers to some 590,000 acres of land owned by the Ministry of Defence was launched by the Independent on Sunday last week. Much of it is not in constant use for Army training and is closed unnecessarily to the public. Even if President Yeltsin decides, on a whim, to sack him, Mr Putin has taken on a political life of his own.Russians are too in awe of him to tell Putin jokes.

The nearest they come to humour when they speak of the Prime Minister is to recall the satirist Vladimir Voinovich's principle that Kremlin leaders alternate between the bald and the hairy. There is something frightening about the simmering anger, even fanaticism, that he hides only just beneath his smooth, cool surface.His future depends on the outcome of the war. If there is no disaster for Russia between now and the elections, the Kremlin appears to be within his reach. The Prime Minister has made clear that there is no question of Chechnya winning independence from the Russian Federation. In addition he is relying heavily on members of the Chechen diaspora in Moscow, who look likely to form a puppet government in the region. Chief among those loyal or quisling Chechens, depending on your point of view, is Beslan Gantimirev, the former mayor of Grozny, who was recently pardoned and released from prison in Moscow, where he was serving a sentence for embezzlement.Mr Putin may believe, in theory, in democratic principles but in his short term in office he has shown that, for him, the end can justify the means.

It was all part of his strategy to split the Chechens and make Russian rule more attractive.In the long term, Mr Putin promises, the political future of Chechnya will be decided not by carpet-bombing but at the negotiating table However, some important options are ruled out in advance. Last week he claimed that family members of the Chechen President, Aslan Maskhadov, had long ago found comfortable refuges far from Grozny. Mr Putin said he wanted Chechens, Russians and the whole world to know that there were two classes of people in Chechnya, the privileged ones, who looked after themselves, and the poor ones, who were suffering. The carrot that Mr Putin would like the West to see is the policy of trying to rebuild those parts of Chechnya that welcome the Russians back.The principle of "divide and rule" is as elementary to Mr Putin, as a graduate of the KGB, as the alphabet.