Word: kremlins
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...pain on the battlefield was preceded by confusion in the corridors of power. Two days before the attacks, the Russian government declared a cease-fire for reasons it could not quite explain. Then the Kremlin announced that two top, hard-line field commanders in Chechnya were being replaced. Then they said the generals, Gennadi Troshev and Vladimir Shamanov, were not being replaced, just rotated back to their previous posts...
...lines signify the limits of territorial control in this war. Still, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin desperately needs a way to declare victory in the popular military campaign that he hopes will carry him to the presidency in March. And he appears to have decided that his road to the Kremlin passes through Grozny...
...mess has heightened the infighting among the Russian military command. The army blamed the troops of its traditional rival, the Interior Ministry, for the lapses that led to last weekend's Chechen successes. That, together with a cacophony of mixed signals from the Kremlin over how to conduct the campaign, will further sap the already diminished morale of the Russian forces. And Russia's economic woes continue to have an impact on the situation. Says Meier, "There are still stories appearing in the media every week of Russian officers in Chechnya selling weapons to the enemy...
...Putin's widespread popularity and his declared hardline against corruption bode well for Russia's future. Indeed, one of his next acts after covering Yeltsin's tracks was to remove Yeltsin's daughter, Tatyana Dyachenko, the recent subject of an investigation into allegations of bribery, from her Kremlin post as "image adviser" to the president. Along with Dyachenko, Putin fired several other members of Yeltsin's inner circle, who have also come under fire for corrupt practices, from their government positions. His promises of economic reform sit well with investors. The Russian stock market rose by about 20 percent...
...into the mountains - even that now looks unlikely without suffering heavy casualties. And one of the reasons the Russian electorate has been so gung-ho on the current Chechnya operation - and Putin - is the impression that Russia is winning while minimizing its own losses. Putin's road to the Kremlin runs through Chechnya, and it's starting to look a little boggy...