BY MAURICE WILLIAMS

The latest episode in Moscow's bloody war against the Chechen people has escalated turmoil in Russia and deepened the fissures in the ruling caste there. "Russia will be consumed by war and revolution if it fails to settle the Chechen crisis soon," reported the Toronto Globe and Mail, describing a warning by Aleksandr Lebed, head of the Security Council.

Chechen and Russian military leaders signed a truce August 27 negotiated by Lebed and Chechen chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov. The agreement came after Chechen fighters humiliated Russian troops in Grozny during a major offensive launched August 6. The Chechens have consolidated their capture of the city, setting up their own checkpoints and their own municipal institutions.

The pact calls for withdrawal of Russian troops and Chechen fighters from Grozny, the Chechen capital, by September 1. The agreement, which also includes a referendum on independence in five years, has not been approved by Russian president Boris Yeltsin.

The latest crisis was exacerbated by the health problems of the ailing Yeltsin, described by aides as suffering from "colossal weariness." Several officials in the government and military, including Lebed, have engaged in a political dogfight during Yeltsin's long absence from public view. Lebed was appointed by Yeltsin as national security adviser after the recent presidential elections, where he won 11 million votes in the first round. For a time in mid-July, right after his appointment, Lebed struck a hard line on Chechnya, saying it "is on the territory of Russia."

A former general who oversaw violent repression of popular uprisings in Georgia and Moldova, Lebed was tapped as "presidential envoy to Chechnya" on August 11 by Yeltsin to end the crisis in the bombed-out republic. Lebed balked at launching another military offensive, noting that "the beginning of a large-scale military operation" by Moscow would lead to a "social explosion and a national revolt" inside Russia.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in the war, which began in 1994 when Yeltsin sent thousands of Russian troops to crush an independence movement.

Divisions within officer corps
Divisions have developed among Russian military leaders on launching an assault to push the Chechens rebels out of Grozny. According to the Wall Street Journal, Gen. Konstatin Pulikovsky, deputy commander of Russian troops in Grozny, issued an ultimatum August 20 that he would launch an all-out offensive, giving residents until August 22 to leave town. "I see force as the only way out," he declared. "We do not intend to put up with brazen and barbaric actions of illegal groups who are continuing to shoot down our helicopters."

Gen. Igor Rodionov, defense minister and an ally of Lebed, condemned the ultimatum, stating Pulikovsky "has no right to make such statements." Lebed blasted the ultimatum and Russian interior minister Gen. Anatoly Kulikov. Kulikov, appointed by Yeltsin on August 15, controls most of the Russian soldiers in Chechnya.

Kulikov told the Interfax news agency Lebed "is going to ruin more lives by his maniacal striving for power."

While Lebed presents his moves as an honest attempt to bring a peaceful solution to the Chechen crisis, London's Financial Times reports he attacked Kulikov as "being responsible for allowing the Chechen separatists to infiltrate Grozny and demanded he be sacked."

General Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, the head of Russian forces in Chechnya, who launched an assault on the Chechen fighters right after the presidential elections, served as chief of staff of the 14th army in Moldova under Lebed.

On August 27, for the third day in a row, Yeltsin has rebuffed Lebed's attempts to meet with him. Yeltsin chided his national security adviser telling Russian television journalists, "I'm not completely satisfied with Lebed and his work in Chechnya."

`Russian army tired of war'
"The Russian army is tired of waging war," Russian military journalist Pavel Felgenhauer wrote August 22. "An increasing number of high-ranking military chiefs are openly questioning the `seek and destroy rebels' policy that has dominated the Chechen war since the Russian army marched on Grozny in December 1994." Igor Shevchenko, Moscow's military prosecutor in Chechnya, said at least 406 Russian soldiers have been killed and 1,264 wounded in the latest military battle.

The August 3 Economist asserted, "Most of [the Russian army's] 1.5 million soldiers are demoralized and ill-trained; they stay because they have nowhere better to go." Oleg Kirginsky, a 20-year-old soldier from Omsk told the Financial Times if it were up to him he would be willing to surrender and pull out of Chechnya with out a second thought. "We would be on our way home in a couple of seconds," he said.

The war in Chechnya cost Moscow nearly $4 billion last year. "They have hungry miners they should be feeding. Why are they spending all their money destroying Chechnya?" asked Shamil Basayev, one of the Chechen commanders. In the Far East, more than 10,000 miners waged a strike in early August demanding back wages.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund released $330 million for Russia August 21. According to the New York Times, officials of the imperialist financial institution said they were "pleased with steps taken to improve revenue collection."

"The real importance of the rebellious republic for Moscow is that it sits astride the oil pipeline best able to carry oil to and through Russia," stated the editors of the Financial Times. They called for "a solution that any foreign investor in the future oil fields would be looking for: guarantees of the free and unhindered flow of oil."

A major political blow to Moscow
Editors of the New York Times called the "explosive offensive by Chechen fighters" a staggering "blow to the Russian armed forces." The August 6 storming of Grozny by the Chechen guerrillas was timed to coincide with Yeltsin's inaugural ceremony. The military operation followed weeks of Russian attacks on Chechen villages.

By August 9, just as Yeltsin was being sworn in as president, the Chechens had corralled as many as 7,000 Russian troops in the center of Grozny. "Our units are totally surrounded in Grozny, and they are not even trying to defend themselves," a Russian military spokesman announced that day. Chechen fighters used captured Russian tanks and armored vehicles in seizing the city.

The big business media acknowledged that Russian bombardments have hardened the Chechen toilers' determination to resist Moscow's domination.

"Our boys are a lot more experienced about war, said Vakha Arsanov, field commander of one of four Chechen armies which now occupy the city. "The Chechen have morale and spirit. We know what we are fighting for and what we are dying for. The only thing they have is their weapons."  
 
 
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