President Boris Yeltsin on Tuesday declared victory in the war in Chechnya and told some conscripts they could go home within days, as he made a surprise whirlwind visit to the republic, effectively leaving the leader of the Chechen rebels hostage in Moscow as security.
A day after reaching a cease-fire agreement with rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev during talks in the Kremlin, Yeltsin, 65, flew first to Mozdok in the neighboring North Caucasus region of North Ossetia, before traveling by helicopter to Grozny's heavily guarded Severny airport.
"The war is over and you have won," Itar-Tass reported Yeltsin as saying as he addressed the troops from the 205th Rifle Brigade at Severny. He told the soldiers that the Chechens were now "routed" and "destroyed."
Details of the visit remained sketchy Tuesday, but it was clear Yeltsin did not go into Grozny itself, remaining at the airport and stopping briefly in the village of Pravoberezhnoye. The entire visit lasted less than four hours.
The trip appeared to take many officials by surprise, and it appeared that Chechen leaders in Moscow for peace talks were held incommunicado for the duration.
While Russian officials said Yandarbiyev canceled a planned press conference, Interfax quoted a Chechen delegation member protesting their "deliberate isolation from the mass media."
"We did not empower the federal side to make such statements on our behalf," Khozhakhmed Yarikhonov said.
Yandarbiyev spent Monday night under tight security in a government guest house and remained secluded there to continue talks on details for implementing the peace accord. Itar-Tass, the official news agency, indicated that he remained in Moscow as security for Yeltsin's trip. such a big country who made this so-called trip like that," he said.
Whatever his resentment regarding Yeltsin's trip, Yandarbiyev said the cease-fire would go ahead as planned.
The Russian president had flown to Grozny accompanied by Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov and Security Council Secretary Oleg Lobov.
"I have come to the land of Chechnya with peace," Yeltsin declared on arrival, according to Interfax. "All Chechnya -- all Russia -- wants the Chechen knot to be untied and the long-awaited peace to come as soon as possible. The Chechen crisis is Russia's worst wound."
Yeltsin has several times acknowledged that the continuing war in Chechnya is a potentially devastating setback for his re-election hopes June 16, and with the cease-fire agreement and Tuesday's visit to the troops he appeared to be redressing that.
"Victory is already behind us. We have defeated the mutinous Dudayev regime," Yeltsin told the 205th, referring to the late rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev, who was killed in a rocket attack April 21, nearly five years after he declared Chechnya's independence from Russia.
"Their resistance has been practically broken. The road to restoring peace and constitutional order in Chechnya is open," Interfax quoted Yeltsin as saying.
Observers, however, have said the war is far from won.
Yeltsin said the military had played a decisive role in crushing the "criminal regime" that had seized Chechnya and should not be held to blame for political errors.
"In performing these tasks, mistakes and serious miscalculations were not avoided. I do not deny my share of the blame," he said.
Yeltsin went on to say all conscripts who had served 18 months of their two-year terms, including six months in Chechnya or other "hot spots" should be discharged and instructed Grachev to ensure that such soldiers were sent home "within a few days."
But if Yeltsin did a great deal to suggest that, as far as he is concerned, the war is over, he also left the door wide open for fighting to continue at the discretion of commanders in the field.
"Scattered groups of the irreconcilable opposition will not lay down their arms at once," Interfax quoted the president as saying. "The toughest counter-measures will be applied against any attempts to resume terrorist and criminal activities."
Moscow has from the outset portrayed the war as an operation to wipe out armed criminal bands.
The cease-fire agreement, which was signed by Yandarbiyev and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin under Yeltsin's supervision Tuesday, made no reference to Chechnya's political status, the issue over which peace negotiations broke down last year.
But in Grozny, Yeltsin made it clear he had no intention of allowing the republic to secede.
"We must demonstrate that the Chechen republic is within Russia and nowhere else," Itar-Tass quoted him as saying.
He said the process of economic reconstruction in Chechnya had already begun, with 16 trillion rubles ($3.2 billion) allocated for the program in 1996, but added that he did not believe peace would come immediately.
Few details were available about Yandarbiyev's talks in Moscow. The Russian side at the negotiations was led by Nationalities Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailov and included Duma nationalities committee chairman Vladimir Zorin and Interior Ministry troops commander Anatoly Shkirko, according to Interfax.
The agency said discussions concentrated on measures to implement the cease-fire and to coordinate the exchange of prisoners, due to be completed within two weeks. According to official figures, 133 Russian soldiers have been taken prisoner by Chechen fighters, in addition to dozens of civilians taken hostage or held for ransom by renegade groups. Thousands of Chechen citizens are believed to be held in Russian filtration camps.
State Duma deputy Ramazan Abdulatipov, who at one point headed a special parliamentary commission for the release of hostages, told Interfax on Tuesday that he believed the release of all such captives was unfeasible within the two weeks.
Both sides in the conflict announced a three-day cease-fire Sunday to cover the period of Yandarbiyev's trip to Moscow. There were no reports of exchanges of fire in Chechnya on Tuesday. Yeltsin remarked on the calm atmosphere, telling Interfax he "did not hear a single shot while in Grozny."
A day after reaching a cease-fire agreement with rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev during talks in the Kremlin, Yeltsin, 65, flew first to Mozdok in the neighboring North Caucasus region of North Ossetia, before traveling by helicopter to Grozny's heavily guarded Severny airport.
"The war is over and you have won," Itar-Tass reported Yeltsin as saying as he addressed the troops from the 205th Rifle Brigade at Severny. He told the soldiers that the Chechens were now "routed" and "destroyed."
Details of the visit remained sketchy Tuesday, but it was clear Yeltsin did not go into Grozny itself, remaining at the airport and stopping briefly in the village of Pravoberezhnoye. The entire visit lasted less than four hours.
The trip appeared to take many officials by surprise, and it appeared that Chechen leaders in Moscow for peace talks were held incommunicado for the duration.
While Russian officials said Yandarbiyev canceled a planned press conference, Interfax quoted a Chechen delegation member protesting their "deliberate isolation from the mass media."
"We did not empower the federal side to make such statements on our behalf," Khozhakhmed Yarikhonov said.
Yandarbiyev spent Monday night under tight security in a government guest house and remained secluded there to continue talks on details for implementing the peace accord. Itar-Tass, the official news agency, indicated that he remained in Moscow as security for Yeltsin's trip. such a big country who made this so-called trip like that," he said.
Whatever his resentment regarding Yeltsin's trip, Yandarbiyev said the cease-fire would go ahead as planned.
The Russian president had flown to Grozny accompanied by Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov and Security Council Secretary Oleg Lobov.
"I have come to the land of Chechnya with peace," Yeltsin declared on arrival, according to Interfax. "All Chechnya -- all Russia -- wants the Chechen knot to be untied and the long-awaited peace to come as soon as possible. The Chechen crisis is Russia's worst wound."
Yeltsin has several times acknowledged that the continuing war in Chechnya is a potentially devastating setback for his re-election hopes June 16, and with the cease-fire agreement and Tuesday's visit to the troops he appeared to be redressing that.
"Victory is already behind us. We have defeated the mutinous Dudayev regime," Yeltsin told the 205th, referring to the late rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev, who was killed in a rocket attack April 21, nearly five years after he declared Chechnya's independence from Russia.
"Their resistance has been practically broken. The road to restoring peace and constitutional order in Chechnya is open," Interfax quoted Yeltsin as saying.
Observers, however, have said the war is far from won.
Yeltsin said the military had played a decisive role in crushing the "criminal regime" that had seized Chechnya and should not be held to blame for political errors.
"In performing these tasks, mistakes and serious miscalculations were not avoided. I do not deny my share of the blame," he said.
Yeltsin went on to say all conscripts who had served 18 months of their two-year terms, including six months in Chechnya or other "hot spots" should be discharged and instructed Grachev to ensure that such soldiers were sent home "within a few days."
But if Yeltsin did a great deal to suggest that, as far as he is concerned, the war is over, he also left the door wide open for fighting to continue at the discretion of commanders in the field.
"Scattered groups of the irreconcilable opposition will not lay down their arms at once," Interfax quoted the president as saying. "The toughest counter-measures will be applied against any attempts to resume terrorist and criminal activities."
Moscow has from the outset portrayed the war as an operation to wipe out armed criminal bands.
The cease-fire agreement, which was signed by Yandarbiyev and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin under Yeltsin's supervision Tuesday, made no reference to Chechnya's political status, the issue over which peace negotiations broke down last year.
But in Grozny, Yeltsin made it clear he had no intention of allowing the republic to secede.
"We must demonstrate that the Chechen republic is within Russia and nowhere else," Itar-Tass quoted him as saying.
He said the process of economic reconstruction in Chechnya had already begun, with 16 trillion rubles ($3.2 billion) allocated for the program in 1996, but added that he did not believe peace would come immediately.
Few details were available about Yandarbiyev's talks in Moscow. The Russian side at the negotiations was led by Nationalities Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailov and included Duma nationalities committee chairman Vladimir Zorin and Interior Ministry troops commander Anatoly Shkirko, according to Interfax.
The agency said discussions concentrated on measures to implement the cease-fire and to coordinate the exchange of prisoners, due to be completed within two weeks. According to official figures, 133 Russian soldiers have been taken prisoner by Chechen fighters, in addition to dozens of civilians taken hostage or held for ransom by renegade groups. Thousands of Chechen citizens are believed to be held in Russian filtration camps.
State Duma deputy Ramazan Abdulatipov, who at one point headed a special parliamentary commission for the release of hostages, told Interfax on Tuesday that he believed the release of all such captives was unfeasible within the two weeks.
Both sides in the conflict announced a three-day cease-fire Sunday to cover the period of Yandarbiyev's trip to Moscow. There were no reports of exchanges of fire in Chechnya on Tuesday. Yeltsin remarked on the calm atmosphere, telling Interfax he "did not hear a single shot while in Grozny."