Yeltsin Lands New Blow On Lebed

Yeltsin, who has repeatedly refused to meet the former general --- his envoy to Chechnya who was due to return there yesterday --- Wednesday awarded a national medal to, and heaped praise on, General Anatoly Kulikov, the interior minister.

Gen Kulikov is one of Lebed's chief rivals and a man he has blamed for the Chechen war. In the chess game of Kremlin politics, the move represented a serious attack on Lebed, who last month threatened to resign unless Gen Kulikov was sacked for his alleged role in dragging out the war.

The President's oblique offensive was also underscored by the ambivalent comments of Anatoly Chubais, the Kremlin chief-of-staff.

 

A liberal politician who is admired by western governments, Chubais Wednesday offered decidedly faint praise for the peace agreement Lebed negotiated over the weekend. He warned that it must not be allowed to weaken the territorial integrity of the Russian federation.

One cannot say entirely that Lebed destroyed Russia and signed a capitulation, but one also cannot say that Lebed deserves to become a national hero,'' he said. These veiled attacks are one expression of the turmoil which Lebed's unexpectedly successful peace initiative has unleashed within the leadership.

Although the President himself has described the Chechen war as his biggest mistake, the Kremlin's desire to end it is balanced by the ruling establishment's fear that the deal could make Lebed unbeatable in the next presidential elections.

That concern has led to some bizarre political shifts which have all but abolished the division between liberal reformers and xenophobic hardliners whose struggle for power was previously seen as the dominant conflict in Russian politics.