PARIS -- Former General Alexander Lebed has suggested the bombing of Chechnya and bomb attacks on apartment buildings in Moscow could be part of a covert government bid to destabilize Russia and cancel forthcoming elections.
Lebed, a possible contender to succeed President Boris Yeltsin next year, told French daily Le Figaro in an interview released ahead of publication Wednesday that the current bombing of breakaway Chechnya was either stupid or a sinister bid to destabilize Russia.
"I am tempted to pick the latter. ... It looks like a wide-ranging attempt at destabilization," he said.
Lebed, who won a peace deal to end the disastrous war in Chechnya three years ago, said the bombs were bound to unite the Chechen people, as they were killing civilians, but missing rebels - who Moscow accuses of committing the acts of violence in Russia.
"Therefore, once again, we will have to face a whole people. If you wage total war, any people will rise up to fight around the clock," he said.
Lebed said he might be called on again to end the war.
"When I was asked in 1996 to take over the war in Chechnya, the government and the president were in deep shit. It's the same thing now, they don't know what to do," he said.
Lebed said he was "almost convinced" that the government was behind bomb attacks that have killed more than 300 people in Moscow and other Russian cities. Russian officials have blamed the blasts on Chechen warlords.
He said Chechen rebels would have targeted military or Interior Ministry buildings, arms dumps or nuclear plants, rather than civilian apartment blocks.
"The president and 'the family' are isolated. They lack any political strength to win the elections. Faced with a desperate situation, the government can have only one aim: destabilize, so that there will be no elections," he said.
Asked Wednesday about Lebed's accusations, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, "I cannot believe he said this."
Such accusations are outlandish, Putin said. "Cashing in politically on the blood of others" is unacceptable, he added.
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