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Moscow foresees prolonged direct rule of Chechnya |
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June 10, 2000
MOSCOW, JUNE 9 (AP) - President Vladimir Putin's decision to put rebel Chechnya under his direct rule gained support Friday from lawmakers as officials said the Kremlin was likely to run the region for several years.
Putin's decision to impose direct rule suspends Chechnya's status as one of the 89 republics of the Russian federation by denying it the right to elect its own regional government. The action underlines the Kremlin's determination not to grant Chechnya independence.
The Russian-held areas of Chechnya are already under the presidency's direct rule and Putin's move merely formalizes and prolongs the Kremlin's control.
It also indicates that the government accepts it has little chance of forming a pliant, elected government in Chechnya anytime soon.
Moscow's efforts to form a client government have made little progress, with rebels killing some Chechens who worked with the Russians. A pro-Moscow Chechen militia was disbanded recently because many of its members were fighting for the rebels.
The Kremlin's move came as Chechen rebels continued a wave of hit-and-run attacks on Russian forces in the region despite Moscow's repeated claims that the insurgents have been defeated.
A military spokesman, who declined to be named, said Friday that two Interior Ministry soldiers were killed and a third was wounded in a bomb blast Thursday night in the Chechen capital of Grozny. The device exploded in the courtyard of a building, he said.
Russian sappers defused bombs in Grozny and two other Chechen towns on Thursday, the military said. The rebels have staged a string of bombings in Russian-held areas in recent weeks.
A senior member of the State Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, said Friday that the chamber would move soon to debate Putin's assumption of direct presidential rule, which it must approve. The Duma, he indicated, will back Putin.
The bill is "a justifiable and necessary move of the head of state," Nikolai Shaklein said in an interview with the ITAR-Tass news agency.
"Only the Russian president can resolve the issue," he added.
The possibility of prolonged direct presidential rule was confirmed by Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Federal Security Service, the country's main domestic intelligence service. Patrushev predicted direct rule would continue for several years while the republic was returned to normal, he said.
"We should arrange things in such a way that the population should work and be engaged in productive business," he told ITAR-Tass.
Putin said the move was aimed at "protecting the constitutional order" in Chechnya and creating conditions for the restoration of its government system, economy and the social sphere.
Under the plan, the republic would be run by a provisional administration headed by a Putin-appointed chief answerable to the president and the Russian federal government.
The Russian offensive against Chechnya, which began in late September, has stalled for months in the rugged southern mountains. The rebels have kept up ambushes and bombings in the northern lowlands that have inflicted a steady stream of losses on Russian forces and sapped troop morale.
The rebels show no sign of giving up their struggle and Putin's move will only increase their determination to fight for independence.
Russian forces were forced out of Chechnya by the rebels in 1996, after which a government was elected under President Aslan Maskhadov. But Maskhadov's government failed to assert its authority or control endemic lawlessness.
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