News releases from the Chechnya War fronts are becoming more and more truthful even in the Russian mass media. While only a few weeks ago Russian society was surprised by Western reactions to what is going on in the Caucasus and was even irritated because a Radio Liberty correspondent by-passed censorship and brought from Chechnya true coverage of this war, rather than one prepared under the dictation of military censors, now one has to admit that everything is only beginning — and not only in Grozny which has not yet been captured despite bombings and the increased strength of the Russian military contingent but also in the rear of the Russian troops, where numerous resistance fighters, well prepared for sabotage, happen to have stayed behind. This is the current explanation of what is going on in Argun or Shaly. Now one tries not to recall that the Russian Army would strike deals with local strongmen, rather than wage a war, in most big and small cities before it reached Grozny. I wish one did not. Otherwise, one would have to admit that the war in Chechnya is only beginning and that Russia is very close to a defeat in this war and to long-time coexistence with a regime much more radical than that of Aslan Maskhadov. Are you surprised? Russia so far does not want to hear the truth about what is going on in Chechnya. However, sooner or later, it will have to hear and see this truth. Even now, true reports of correspondents often break through Russian television programs, and what about tomorrow?
Thus the Chechnya War, which became a springboard for Premier Vladimir Putin, is gradually turning into a trap for Acting President Vladimir Putin. For if the situation continues to develop this way in the presidential election campaign, it will mean that Russians will vote for Putin not because they love him so but because the party of power has failed to offer them anybody else.
And if it does offer one? For Mr. Putin’s Chechnya problems can now be easily taken advantage of to turn him from a self-sufficient politician into a hostage to the interests of oligarchic clans, or, to be more exact, to eliminate even the possibility of turning Boris Yeltsin’s heir into a self-sufficient politician.
