Presidential aides and government officials voiced their support Wednesday for opposition forces that have claimed power in breakaway Chechnya, but Moscow continued to withhold official recognition.


The official Russian media gave full play to a declaration of the Provisional Council that it was assuming control from President Dzhokhar Dudayev, who led the North Caucasus republic to self-declared independence from Moscow in 1991.


Russia's tacit support for the declaration was the latest sign that its patience with the Dudayev regime had ended, but the Kremlin has so far ruled out military intervention in the region.


Emil Payin, President Boris Yeltsin's adviser on nationalities, was quoted in the official government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Wednesday as calling the Provisional Council "a constructive organ."


Payin's aide, Arkady Popov, said in an interview that Moscow might recognize the Provisional Council within days. Before openly siding with the council, the Russian government still needed to find out how much support it had and who its leaders were, Popov said.


"There is a real risk that Russia, by acting carelessly, involuntarily provokes the situation in Chechnya," he said. "If we interfere actively, for instance by recognizing the Provisional Council, this could be the last straw, causing the council to launch a military attack on Dudayev. This is undesirable."


Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai on Wednesday said Dudayev's regime would collapse peacefully within months, suggesting that no Russian invasion was imminent, Interfax reported.


Shakhrai on Tuesday praised the Provisional Council as "forces, able to normalize relations with the federal authorities and stem the rise in crime."


The announcement of the Provisional Council followed four days of heavy Russian propaganda against Dudayev. Government officials accused him of beheading three of his opponents, making armed incursions into Russia and supporting criminal gangs.


Chechen leaders have interpreted the Kremlin's verbal attacks as preparation for a Russian military invasion. Itar-Tass on Wednesday quoted Chechnya's military leadership as saying that Russian troops were approaching its borders. Russia's Defense Ministry denied the report, Tass said.


Presidential spokesman Anatoly Krasikov said Yeltsin was still analyzing the situation, adding: "He has no intention of making any rash decisions."


Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who Tuesday called Chechnya "Russia's biggest pain" but pledged to solve the problem peacefully, had not considered the matter Wednesday and was not expected to do so at Thursday's cabinet meeting, government spokesman Valery Grishin said.


A member of the Provisional Council, Balrudi Dzhamalkhanov, told The Moscow Times that Russia had already shown its support for the rebellion by printing the council's declarations on the front page of its organ, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, and giving its leader airtime on state television.


Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported that Dudayev may own two SS-20 nuclear missiles, allegedly obtained from stockpiles slated for destruction under a disarmament treaty with the United States.


Defense Ministry spokesman Ivan Skrylnik dismissed the report, saying that "All SS-20 missiles have already been destroyed years ago."