Word: chechnya
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...Russian government must keep making tough choices and sticking with them. One example is a peaceful end to the brutal war in Chechnya. Another is an urgently needed overhaul of tax collection. The complexity and inefficiency of the current system have scared off foreign and domestic investment, and Moscow's failure to take in adequate revenues has jeopardized its eligibility for loans from the International Monetary Fund. At a more fundamental level, rampant criminality threatens to undermine the Russian people's confidence in reform and in democracy itself, and could serve as a pretext for the reimposition of stultifying state...
Lebed brushed off the charges and promised counterallegations that Kulikov had set up concentration camps in Chechnya where thousands had died. His bodyguards then detained four Interior Ministry security agents who, they say, were following the national security adviser...
Lebed's dismissal also casts a disturbing shadow over the Chechnya peace plan. While the rest of the government was apparently sunk in paralysis, Lebed almost single-handedly brought the fighting to an end last August--at the cost, his enemies in the administration say, of sanctioning Chechnya's eventual secession. Kulikov, the man who led the charge to force Lebed out, has been a vocal opponent of the peace agreement, and is widely suspected of wanting to resume combat in Chechnya. The Interior Minister last week went so far as to hint broadly that Lebed had links with Chechen...
Nevertheless, dropping the general is still a big gamble for the Kremlin. Lebed remains far and away the most popular politician in the country. If fighting in Chechnya breaks out again, warns Alexander Oslon, who polled for Yeltsin during the presidential campaign, Lebed's popularity could take on "legendary" proportions. At the very least, Oslon says, the infighting that has accompanied the Lebed affair will deepen public disillusionment in the political process...
...Kremlin tell TIME that when Lebed recently tried to dictate to Rodionov a list of high-level personnel changes in the ministry, "Rodionov told him what to do with his list." Lebed's opponents in the political establishment are hoping that time will erode his lead. If the Chechnya peace agreement unravels, or Yeltsin recovers, Lebed's premature election campaign will look both indelicate and unwise. But in either case, Lebed might well walk out of the government, claiming to be the victim of jealous and corrupt government leaders. This is not a reassuring prospect for his many enemies...