Russia Revolts

In the wake of an assassination attempt on the Chechen president and menacing war games by Russian forces on the separatist republic's doorstep, officials here and in Chechnya fear that another explosion of warfare may be near. The latest incidents intensify an atmosphere of insecurity created by a spate of kidnappings and car bombings that has made the southern republic a lawless flash point despite a provisional peace agreement signed two years ago. Russian President Boris N.

Who killed six Westerners working for the Red Cross in Chechnya in December? The immediate answer is clear: 15 masked men, with the silenced guns of professional killers, broke into a white-walled hospital compound in the dead of night and shot their victims, point-blank, as they slept. What remains a mystery is who the gunmen were, who commissioned the crime and why.

Elections that were supposed to confirm peace in the separatist region of Chechnya--after almost two years of war with Russia's army--are turning into a violent free-for-all of mysterious kidnappings, vicious political mud-slinging and threats of further armed conflict. Ruslan S.

The last Russian soldiers left the rebel republic of Chechnya on Sunday, ending a humiliating military involvement that began more than two years ago. The pullout, part of last year's peace agreement between Moscow and Chechen separatists, clears the way for general elections in Chechnya on Jan. 27. The Russian ministries of interior and defense, which together had more than 30,000 troops in the southern republic, said Sunday that the pullout is complete.

Aslan Maskhadov, the military commander who helped bring peace to separatist Chechnya, proclaimed himself the new president of the southern republic Tuesday on the basis of leaked, partial election results. Surrounded by armed guards and solemn advisors in fur hats, Maskhadov--the Chechen candidate whom Moscow preferred--swept into a postelection meeting with journalists and listened impassively as his spokesman announced his victory. "Today we start the first press conference with Mr.

Sensing freedom after two centuries of rule by Moscow, Chechens flocked to the polls Monday to vote in elections that they hope will confirm the end of the war that Russia waged against their separatist leaders for almost two years and that would bring independence one step closer. Donning their best but threadbare clothes, the people of this tiny Muslim region turned their day of decision-making into a party.

Picking their way through the crowded market past peacetime election banners, the homemakers of this Chechen town are singing along with songs of war. "Why do you Russians tell untruths?" one Mideastern-sounding ditty blares from a stall selling unlabeled cassettes. "The whole world knows you'll never conquer Chechnya. You won't make your homes here; that was ordained long ago. Come here and you'll die like a dog, and you'll die when you're drunk.

Shivering in their half-ruined towns and villages, still without running water, phones or jobs after two years of war with Russia, the people of the separatist republic of Chechnya are bewildered by the election posters plastered on the least-damaged walls. All 16 candidates in the race for a postwar Chechen president, to be elected Jan.

The presidents of Russia and Chechnya signed a peace treaty Monday declaring an end to the separatist war in Chechnya and pledging to abandon the use of force in settling their disputes. After signing the peace accord at a Kremlin ceremony, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov declared that the treaty ends four centuries of armed conflict and will lead to cooperation in halting a recent wave of terrorism in Chechnya and Russia.

A wave of terrorist attacks in southern Russia, including the assassination Wednesday of a local official, is casting doubt on the future of the stumbling peace process between Russia and separatist Chechnya. In a region neighboring Chechnya, unidentified gunmen shot dead the local deputy interior minister, Khamzat Dzeitov, and his driver as they drove a suspected criminal to jail. The prisoner escaped.