NOW IT'S LEBED'S WAR

By Bruce W. Nelan

Before dawn last Thursday, a dark blue Volvo stopped alongside a World War II memorial in Moscow, and Alexander Lebed, the country's most talked-about politician, stepped out. The retired general was wearing civilian clothes but marched with characteristic ramrod posture into the Church of St. George the Victorious, patron saint of Russian warriors. From there the Secretary of Moscow's Security Council and now special envoy to Chechnya sped to the airport for his second journey last week in search of peace in that war-trampled republic.

Lebed's meditation before St. George's iconostasis may have helped. When he returned to Moscow the next day, he carried with him an agreement to stop the shooting in Chechnya, disengage troops on the ground and set up a conciliation commission. He swaggered a bit, claiming he had a secret plan to end the Chechnya problem for good but had to talk with President Boris Yeltsin before making it public. And he boldly demanded that Yeltsin get rid of the Moscow official he blamed for Russia's latest bloody disaster in Chechnya, where a week of brutal combat has returned the capital city of Grozny to rebel control.

Many of Lebed's government colleagues consider him a bull let loose in Kremlin corridors, and hoped he would fall flat when he undertook the thankless peace mission. He might yet, but if he can deliver a face-saving way out of the meat-grinder war, he will become a political figure of awesome proportions just as Yeltsin's health and strength are ebbing.

When Lebed was running for President last spring, one of his campaign posters showed him in battle dress over the caption, "I have already stopped one war." That was a reference to his termination of a mini-civil war in Moldova after it went independent in 1991 and a promise he could do the same in Chechnya. He was startled nonetheless when he learned two weeks ago that Yeltsin had named him his new special representative to find a settlement in the breakaway region. Lebed was sure his rivals in the government "apparatus" were trying to set him up. "Someone wants me very much to break my neck over this assignment," he said. "We'll see. I like very difficult tasks."

In that case he must love Chechnya. Expecting a quick victory, Yeltsin sent the Russian army in 20 months ago to put down the Chechens' independence drive; it has been a tragic mess ever since. Russian artillery and bombs have blasted cities and villages to rubble, but the ill-trained Russian infantry has proved no match for the fast-moving, highly motivated Chechens. In a ferocious surprise attack begun Aug. 6 to embarrass Yeltsin at his inaugural, Chechen fighters succeeded in reversing the course of the war, driving thousands of Russian troops--and desperate civilians--out of Grozny, inflicting hundreds of casualties and surrounding thousands of other Russians in their barracks and strongpoints. Back in command of their capital, the Chechens intend to stay.

That was the situation Lebed encountered on his first visit at the beginning of last week. He worked out an informal cease-fire with Chechen chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov and flew back to Moscow in an angry mood. He called for Russian troops to be pulled out for "humanitarian reasons because they have been sent as cannon fodder." The soldiers are "underfed, underclothed, lice-ridden weaklings." But, he added, he would try to end the war if he were given broad special powers to do it.

After hesitating for a day, Yeltsin decided to go along. He granted Lebed effective control and command authority over all army, Interior Ministry and security troops in Chechnya. Lebed charged south again and met for four hours outside Grozny with Maskhadov and Chechen political leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. "We had a constructive talk that gives some hope," Lebed reported. "I think we trust each other," said Yandarbiyev. They agreed to a cease-fire, though there was sporadic firing, and the Russians bombed and strafed Chechen refugees fleeing the city. The two sides set up a commission to try to mediate a settlement.

Back in Moscow, Lebed let fly at the incompetence he said he found among Russia's leadership. He demanded the ouster of Interior Minister Anatoli Kulikov, whose troops were responsible for the defense of Grozny. "General Kulikov," Lebed stormed, "is one of the main culprits of the tragedy in Chechnya." He accused Kulikov of harboring a "Napoleonic complex" and urged Yeltsin to choose "either Lebed or Kulikov, but you can't keep us both." Kulikov snarled back that Lebed was displaying a "maniacal desire to come to power" and sent a letter to Yeltsin requesting his decision on the issue.

How can the checkmated war in Chechnya be ended? During the election campaign, Lebed suggested that all Russians, military and civilian, should be evacuated and the Chechens should decide by referendum if they wanted independence from Russia. Since then he has backtracked, offering Chechnya broad autonomy inside the Russian Federation, similar to the status negotiated with Tatarstan. Either way, he knows he cannot even begin reforming and modernizing the Russian military, one of his top priorities, while it is fighting a pulverizing war in the south. "Many on both sides are not going to like my plan," Lebed said last week, "but only a radical plan may offer hope for peace."

Such a plan will also have to be extraordinarily imaginative because the two sides' positions are mutually exclusive. The Chechens have vowed to accept nothing short of outright independence, while the Russians have offered anything but. Lebed could still stumble on this contradiction. For now, however, he is scoring power points. He is bidding to dump the Interior Minister in the same way he got rid of the Defense Minister in June and replaced him with his own man. He has wangled full authority over the armed forces and intelligence services in Chechnya, giving orders through the general staff in Moscow. Many who do not admire him wonder--and worry--about what imaginative plans he might come up with to use those powers elsewhere.

--Reported by Dean Fischer/Washington and Yuri Zarakhovich/ Moscow

With reporting by DEAN FISCHER/WASHINGTON AND YURI ZARAKHOVICH/ MOSCOW