CNN - Yeltsin practices the politics of peace

Yeltsin practices the politics of peace
April 1, 1996
Web posted at: 9:00 p.m. EST (0200 GMT)
GROZNY, Russia (CNN) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin's political rivals dismiss his plan for peace in Chechnya as a political ploy to boost his standing for the presidential election in June.

Yeltsin announced a cease-fire Sunday to end fighting between Russian soldiers and Chechen rebels fighting for independence from Moscow.

Although Russian soldiers say they have stopped their offensive against the Chechen rebels, the Chechens report the fighting continued past Yeltsin's Sunday midnight deadline.

"At this hour, on the territory of the Chechen republic intensive military action is continuing," an aide to rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev said in a TV interview Monday.

The fighting is not inconsistent with the peace plan, according to General Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, commander of Russian forces in the region.

"Special operations will continue against ... terrorists, perhaps not on the same scale as before, but by the responsible organs," Tikhomirov said.

Yeltsin's peace plan includes a cease-fire and a chance for negotiations with Chechen leaders seeking independence. But while he will offer the Chechens more autonomy, he has ruled out granting them independence. The Russian president's critics say the plan is motivated by political aims.

Gennady Zyuganov, Yeltsin's Communist rival in the June 16 presidential election, said negotiations should have started with the rebels before the beginning of military operations. Another presidential candidate called the plan a campaign fraud.

The rhetoric is just one sign that the presidential elections coming up in Russia are a far cry from the voting that took place under Communist rule.

But then again, Russian politicians have caught on to the business of electoral politics quickly.

"The victory of President Yeltsin is assured," said Yuli Vorontsov, Russian Ambassador to the U.S., putting a healthy political spin on the campaign.

Yeltsin's peace initiative is viewed by some as a two-pronged public relations blitz to make Yeltsin look electable at home and abroad as he declares the beginning of the end of the military blitz on breakaway Chechnya and offers negotiations with Dudayev.

"The war is over. It's now up to General Dudayev, that's his decision. If he wants to continue the war he will get that. It take takes two, not only to tango, it takes two to make peace at the battlefront," said Vorontsov. (170K AIFF sound or 170K WAV sound)

The message, designed to make the hearts of Russo-centric business executives go pitter-pat, smacks of U.S.-style political hyperbole.

What's more, the message ignores some downright distasteful realities, including the Communist-dominated Russian parliament's desire to rebuild the Soviet empire and Yeltsin's considerable lag in the polls behind Zyuganov.

The Chechen rebels, who would like nothing better than to bring Yeltsin down, responded to the peace overture by killing at least 28 Russian soldiers about the time the cease-fire was declared.

Senior U.S. administration officials called Yeltsin's plan a long shot intended, as they put it, to wind down and contain the crisis in advance of the election rather than to resolve root issues.

All that said, the public U.S. response to the Yeltsin initiative was predictable.

"The cycle of violence must end," U.S. National Security Adviser Anthony Lake said Monday. "We welcome President Yeltsin's decision announced yesterday to begin withdrawing army units and to intensify the search for a settlement there. We call on the Chechens to respond in a similar spirit." (213K AIFF sound or 213K WAV sound)

Among U.S. officials in Washington and careful observers in Moscow there is a growing consensus that Yeltsin will win by hook or by crook -- regardless of Chechnya.

So, by calling a cease-fire, the Russian president is doing little more than paying lip service to a campaign pledge at home and trying to recapture a modicum of the moral high ground before Western leaders assemble in Moscow this month for a summit on nuclear issues.

From CNN's State Department Correspondent Steve Hurst andReuter news agency.

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Yeltsin practices the politics of peace

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