President Boris Yeltsin, addressing the nation for the first time since ordering troops into Chechnya on Dec. 11, promised to stop bombing the capital Grozny to avoid further civilian casualties, but ruled out withdrawing troops from the rebel region.


After 16 days of public silence on the Chechen issue -- interrupted only by statements issued through his press service -- Yeltsin took a tough line in his televised speech, seeking to project the image of a confident leader keen to reimpose law and order in a crime-ridden but still salvageable region of his country.


"I want to assure all Russians: Do not worry," Yeltsin said. "Peace and order in Chechnya will be restored, and measures will be taken to rule out delays in solving this difficult problem."


However, the speech is unlikely to appease the president's erstwhile supporters, who lately have been deserting him in droves.


Yeltsin, who stared unblinkingly at the camera throughout the speech, stressed that Russian military presence in Chechnya was essential for resolving the crisis.


"Law and order will be restored to the Chechen Republic," the president said. "Grozny must be purged of criminal elements within a short time."


However, he did not say directly that Russian troops will storm Grozny.


Andrei Penkovsky, director of the Strategic Studies Center, an independent Moscow think tank, said Yeltsin's rhetoric may have been more bark than bite.


"It is my feeling," Penkovsky said, that the president is hoping that the situation "will quietly dissolve."


Calling Yeltsin's performance "sad," Penkovsky added that "the people who brought him to power can no longer accept him as their leader. He is in a total political vacuum now." The president said the troops had blockaded Chechen "armed bands" in Grozny and that his only concern was the plight of civilians stranded in the besieged city. He spoke of establishing "filtration points" around Grozny to allow refugees to leave while keeping armed militants within the Russian encirclement.


"Your specific task is to disarm bandits and get them to give in or destroy their heavy weaponry," Yeltsin said, addressing troops in the area. "You are under the protection of the state and the Russian constitution, under the personal protection of the president."


More than 45 Russian servicemen have been killed in Chechnya so far, according to official data.


Yeltsin's speech came one day after he told his powerful Security Council that Russian troops are in Chechnya to stay but that the aerial bombing offensive would be halted.


Some of Yeltsin's remarks in his speech ran counter to developments in the region. The president, for example, thanked the North Caucasus regions bordering on Chechnya for helping Russian troops reach their target area. But reports from Ingushetia and Dagestan in recent weeks showed local people angrily blocking the troops' path.


Reports from Grozny on Tuesday said the bombing had stopped. Yeltsin's human rights commissioner, Sergei Kovalyov, who is now in the Chechen capital, told Russian television that no bombs had been dropped on the city on Monday or Tuesday.


The air strikes have already claimed hundreds of lives, according to reports from Chechnya.


In his speech, Yeltsin sought to justify Russia's military action in Chechnya by slamming the republic as a breeding ground for criminals. He said the rebel region had been responsible for much of the drug and arms traffic in Russia and that the Russian intervention improved the overall crime situation in the country.


Not once did Yeltsin name Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev by name, referring to Dudayev's government simply as a "criminal regime."


However, Yeltsin authorized three top officials -- Nationalities Minister Nikolai Yegorov, counterintelligence chief Sergei Stepashin and General Anatoly Kvashnin -- to negotiate a cease-fire with "the leaders of illegal armed groups."


Penkovsky said negotiations were almost impossible, because the Chechen leadership regarded Yegorov and Stepashin as instigators of the conflict.


Yeltsin praised Russian troops for operating successfully in Chechnya. "The efforts of the military and police are already yielding results," the president said. "The ring around Grozny has tightened. The armed bands are blocked."


His assessment contradicted numerous media reports of bumbling inefficiency among Russian commanders and soldiers and their low morale. However, Yeltsin had harsh words for the media to account for this discrepancy.


"I know that Chechen money pays for the functioning of some Russian mass media," he said. He did not elaborate, but the remark could have referred to any Russian newspaper or television station if criticism of the Chechen operation is tantamount to being on Dudayev's payroll.


"Our military did a good job -- that is the Russian president's assessment of the Chechen operation's bloody outcome," the formerly pro-Yeltsin daily Izvestia wrote in a front-page headline in its Wednesday edition.


Following are excerpts from President Boris Yeltsin's televised statement Tuesday regarding the Russian involvement in Chechnya:





"Many Russians have been asking: What is going on in the republic and why are Russian troops in Chechnya?


"First, I will answer the most important question: Russian soldiers are defending the integrity of Russia. This is an indispensible condition for the existence of the Russian state. The Chechen republic is part of the Russian Federation, the composition of which is affirmed by the constitution. No territory has the right to leave Russia ...


"Many people have been asking lately: Does the government have the right to undertake military action in Chechnya?


"Believe me, this is one of the most complicated questions. The Russian people have long and justly reproached us -- and me as the president -- for indecision, for a lack of political will, for an unwillingness to bring order to the territory of the Chechen Republic, an inseparable part of Russia. This extremely complicated situation has forced us to make the most difficult decision -- the decision to use force on the territory of Chechnya ...


"Remember, the spread of criminality in Chechnya threatens the security of our entire country. Even your relatives could become its victims.


"Remember, our common goal is to help the Chechen people escape from the misfortune into which they have fallen. To help restore a normal, peaceful and calm life...


"The borders of the Chechen republic have been brought under control. The transfer of weapons, narcotics and counterfeit money into Russia has been halted...


"However, Russian citizens continue to die. The destruction continues. I am saying this with pain. I know that many people today have been deprived of the opportunity to leave Grozny.


"Therefore it is all the more important to secure conditions under which peaceful citizens can leave Grozny. At the same time, the continuous work of filtration points must be facilitated in order to prevent the infiltration of weapons into areas outside the blockaded zone...


"The Gordian knot posed by the Chechen crisis can be cut. But the cost is too high -- the cost of the lives of Russian citizens. In order to save lives, I have ordered that there be no air strikes that could lead to civilian casualties in Grozny...


"Russia is not an enemy to Moslems. Any nation living on its territory has the right to maintain its national identity and its traditions.


"We all want the same thing: that life in the Chechen Republic once again return to normal. The fate of the Chechen nation must not be determined by the bosses of the criminal world or by those who happen to have the best weapons and the most soldiers. The people themselves must decide what will come next. This is how it will be ..."