In the wake of President Boris Yeltsin's public endorsement of Mayor Yury Luzhkov in his bid to control Moscow privatization, federal privatization chief Anatoly Chubais said he might have to retreat in the capital to win his nationwide battle to sell off state assets.Yeltsin told a nationally televised news conference Friday that Chubais should keep his hands off Moscow, where he has run into stiff resistance from Luzhkov.In an interview Sunday, Chubais paralleled himself with Field Marshall Mikhail Kutuzov, who gave up Moscow to Napoleon's invading army in 1812 so that he could regroup his forces and eventually drive the French Emperor out of Russia."Kutuzov surrendered Moscow, but saved Russia," Chubais told Interfax. "I think our victories are still ahead."At its roots, the Chubais-Luzhkov clash is one over power and money. Luzhkov's privatization plan gives the city full say in privatizing its assets, and bars private ownership of land despite federal law to the contrary. The Luzhkov plan also generates revenue for the city coffers, which officials say will result in better local services.At a press conference Friday, Yeltsin said he had given a verbal instruction to First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets to give Luzhkov full run over the capital's privatization program. In his Interfax interview, Chubais said that this order must be registered in a written decree to have any weight."Otherwise we shall use all the means available to insure the observance of the laws," Chubais said.Chubais' privatization plan, which gave vouchers to every Russian man, woman and child entitling them to a share of the country's enterprises, is at the heart of Yeltsin's efforts to give citizens a stake in Russia's emerging free market economy quickly.Yet Luzhkov prefers a slower process of privatization in which his administration decides what, when and how companies are privatized. His plan also obliges private companies to follow city rules regarding the number of workers they employ, the products or services they provide and other details of the business. The city will also soak up what it sees as excess profits.Under a plan approved by the mayor and city council earlier this year, Moscow will keep many enterprises in city hands for some time to come. Among the organizations specifically protected from privatization this year are buildings on Novy Arbat, organizations that build and repair the city's bridges, metro lines and sewers, and Moscow's cash register factory.The city's privatization program is run by the Moscow State Property Committee, a miniature version of Chubais' State Property Committee. The Moscow committee reports, however, not to Chubais and the federal government but to Luzhkov."The Moscow State Property Fund does not decide anything for itself; all questions are decided by the Moscow government headed by Yury Luzhkov," said spokesman Grigory Antufayev.Its only higher authority is the president, he said, who for now has agreed to delegate his powers to Luzhkov. "If the president says things will be such, we cannot argue with this," he said. "His decrees are law for us."