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Christus Rex Information ServiceMOSCOW (Apr 30, 1996 09:11 a.m. EDT) - President Boris Yeltsin told his security chiefs on Tuesday to step up measures to avert any attacks Chechen rebels might plan to disrupt May Day festivities in Russia.
As Russia prepared for a four-day public holiday, authorities fear reprisal raids by the guerrillas following the death of separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev nine days ago.
Chechen rebels, demanding independence for their Moslem region, earlier staged two hostage-seizing operations in southern Russia.
Yeltsin called in top security ministers to discuss possible attacks by "bandits" loyal to the slain rebel leader "who, out of despair, may commit criminal acts," his spokesman said.
"The president demanded that participants in the meeting take decisive steps to secure order on the territory of the Russian Federation," Kremlin spokesman Sergei Medvedev told Interfax news agency.
Yeltsin, seeking re-election in June, made his appeal after tension heightened in Chechnya following Dudayev's death on April 21 and unconfirmed reports on Monday that his successor, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, had also been killed.
In Chechnya itself, Russian troops enforced tight security in the devastated capital Grozny and appealed to the few residents there not to take part in separatist rallies.
Russian forces continued to shell the village of Goiskoye, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Grozny, until early morning to winkle out separatist guerrillas, a local government official told Ekho Moskvy radio station.
There was no fresh word to confirm the fate of Yandarbiyev, who took over after Dudayev's death in a rocket attack.
But Magomed Gaisultanov, deputy head of the administration of the Urus-Martan region where Yandarbiyev was reported to have been killed, said he believed the Chechen leader was alive.
"In any event, there was no murder in Urus-Martan, just as there was no funeral of Yandarbiyev in (nearby) Starye Atagi. There was no body taken there either yesterday or today," Ekho Moskvy quoted him as saying.
Other officials of the pro-Moscow Chechen government said on Monday he had died in shooting with rival rebel leaders, but this was later dismissed as "a lie" by a rebel official.
The bristling political climate in Russia ahead of the June 16 election, and signs that Yeltsin will have a hard job to overturn communist leader Gennady Zyuganov's lead in popularity, have further fuelled tension before the holiday period.
Yeltsin and Zyuganov may turn out in Moscow for rival city centre marches on Wednesday to mark official Workers' Day.
Yeltsin, 65, is waging a scare-campaign among voters, warning them that the communists will derail the transition to a market economy and turn back the clock to the Soviet era.
Zyuganov, 51, says Western-style reforms have bred social injustice and spawned a crime-ridden, immoral society.
The uncertain climate prompted 13 leading bankers and businessmen last week to call on all political forces to hold talks to avert chaos or civil war. Zyuganov, backing the initiative, met some of the businessmen on Tuesday.
In a challenge which seemed likely to be ignored by Yeltsin, Zyuganov also said he was ready to have a face-to-face meeting on television with the Kremlin leader to assure the people.
"We could give a strong moral and political guarantee of holding a normal, correct pre-election struggle," he said.
A new opinion poll issued on Tuesday put Yeltsin slightly ahead of Zyuganov. The survey carried out by the Public Opinion foundation and released by Interfax news agency, gave Yeltsin 23 percent support compared to 22 percent for Zyuganov.
But, painting a bleaker picture for Yeltsin, the independent Institute of the Sociology of Parliamentarism said Zyuganov could win 38-47 percent of votes on June 16 and that Yeltsin would win only 16-20 percent.
NEAR URUS-MARTAN, Russia (Apr 29, 1996 7:00 p.m. EDT) - A senior Chechen separatist field commander denied reports Monday that new rebel chief Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was shot and killed in a power struggle but his fate remained uncertain.
Russian news agencies said Yandarbiyev was killed in a clash with rivals Sunday night, a week after taking over from slain separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev.
"It is a typical lie by the Russian side. I spoke to him an hour ago by radio," Doku Makhayev, who commands a sector of the rebels' southwestern front, told Reuters. "He is in very good condition. There was no incident. There was no shooting."
The rebels have successfully held the Russian armed forces at bay for more than 16 months in a conflict that could torpedo President Boris Yeltsin's hopes of winning a second term in a June 16 election.
More than 30,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the conflict since Yeltsin sent troops into Chechnya in December 1994 to crush Dudayev's independence drive in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region.
Yandarbiyev, a hard-line secessionist whose death was also reported by officials in the pro-Moscow Chechen government, took over after Dudayev died April 21 in a Russian rocket attack.
Makhayev said the new leader intended to meet reporters. "I don't know when, but he intends to," he said as shells crashed down on nearby villages. "Now they (the Russians) are bombing, you can hear for yourself," he said.
In a report from the Chechen capital of Grozny, the Interfax news agency also quoted a senior representative of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) as denying Yandarbiyev had been killed.
The unnamed FSB representative said it was not Yandarbiyev who had been killed but his nephew.
"The report of the death of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in an exchange of fire in the Urus-Martan region Sunday night is hasty," the FSB source said, adding that Yandarbiyev's entourage had also confirmed he had not been killed.
Yandarbiyev's reported death was accompanied by a barrage of speculation in the Russian media about disarray and divisions in the guerrilla leadership after the killing of Dudayev.
The Itar-Tass news agency, quoting a press spokesman for the region's pro-Moscow government, said the 44-year-old Yandarbiyev died in a gunbattle with other separatists near Urus-Martan, 15 miles south of Grozny.
"According to all the evidence, the reason for the death of Yandarbiyev was a straightforward 'settling of accounts' among the fighters," the RIA news agency said.
Gen. Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, commander of joint Russian forces in Chechnya, said rebel field commanders were "fighting for spheres of influence and the money bag."
"After Dudayev's death, there was no politician among his supporters who could occupy his place," Interfax quoted Tikhomirov as saying.
Yandarbiyev, a literary scholar, was endorsed as Dudayev's successor by a rebel military council which met soon after the leader's death.
But some Russian media reports said Yandarbiyev did not enjoy the full support of the rebels despite his strong pro-independence reputation.
In particular charismatic field commander Shamil Basayev was said to have had reservations over his leadership. But the military council, of which Basayev is a member, opted in favor of showing a united front after Dudayev's death.
RIA and other news agencies, quoting a source close to the rebel leadership, said the council appointed Basayev to replace the moderate Aslan Maskhadov as their chief of staff Sunday. But this could not be immediately confirmed.
Basayev won notoriety in Russia and fame in Chechnya by leading a bloody raid on the southern Russian town of Budennovsk last summer in which more than 120 people were killed in a shootout with Russian special forces.
Maskhadov, regarded by Russia as a potential negotiating partner, told NTV independent television: "There are no divisions among us and there cannot be."
THE Chechen rebel who last week succeeded Dzhokhar Dudayev as leader has also been killed, Moscow claimed yesterday. But the reports of the death of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev could not be confirmed, and one news agency, Interfax, later said he was still alive.
It quoted a high-ranking official in the Russian intelligence agency, as saying in Grozny, the capital of the breakaway republic, that Mr Yandarbiyev's nephew had died, not him. This did not stop Moscow officials from portraying the reported death as evidence of a fierce power struggle in Chechnya. They described the killing in gangland terms as a "settling of accounts".
Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, commander of joint Russian forces in Chechnya, said the rebels were now "fighting for spheres of influence and the money bag". He said: "After Dudayev's death, there was no politician among his supporters who could occupy his place."
Shortly after the death reports, the Itar-Tass agency said the guerrilla leader Shamil Basayev had been appointed chief of staff of the rebel army on Sunday by other field commanders. The rebel leader, who led the hostage raid on the southern Russian town of Buddyonovsk, would take the place of Aslan Maskhadov, it said, quoting rebel sources. The outgoing chief of staff is regarded by Russia as a moderate and is clearly their favourite among the rebels. It remained unclear yesterday what Basayev's promotion meant for Maskhadov and what role he would now play.
The Kremlin has repeatedly referred to a fierce power struggle in the guerrilla leadership since a Russian rocket attack killed President Dudayev on April 21. It claimed yesterday that the guerrilla movement, no longer under the charismatic leadership of Dudayev, was clearly disintegrating into rival groups. From the outset, the Kremlin did not recognise Mr Yandarbiyev as the new leader of the Chechen separatist movement. Officials continuously went out of their way to say that the 44-year-old writer had little if any influence over the rebels and should not be considered for peace talks.
Mr Yandarbiyev told journalists soon after coming to power that he would never give up the independence drive and ruled out peace talks as long as Dudayev's death was not avenged.
The Kremlin has made clear that it hopes Maskhadov, an advocate of peace talks, will take over. But Liberal Russian politicians gave warning of the dangerous game the Kremlin might be playing in trying to eliminate the rebel leadership. "If the version about the death of Yandarbiyev is confirmed, then only a more radical figure, for example Basayev, can take his place," said Konstantin Borovoi, a parliamentarian who has been pressing for a peace settlement.
"In any case, the supporters of a moderate line are now losing all support and cannot influence the situation."
Since Dudayev's death, the tension in the breakaway republic has been high. The Russian military command said its positions had come under repeated fire in the last 24 hours. Over the weekend, the two sides exchanged shell fire near the village of Goiskoye, where several hundred rebels are said to be dug in.
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