JUST as the Russian political establishment seemed to be uniting behind Gen Alexander Lebed's peace plan in Chechnya, Gen Lebed himself appeared to throw cold water on his own efforts.
"I would not say my efforts have been successful," he told a Moscow press conference, adding that there were so many armed groups in Chechnya that anything could still happen.
Earlier, the Prime Minister Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, on a visit to the city of Nalchik near Chechnya had not only endorsed Gen Lebed's efforts but announced that they had the backing of the still silent President Yeltsin.
Mr Yeltsin and Mr Chernomyrdin had appeared together on the main evening news bulletin on Monday night in a short clip without sound. Mr Yeltsin looked relaxed but appeared to have a high complexion and to have lost considerable weight.
In Bern, Russia's foreign minister, the former KGB chief Mr Yevgeny Primakov, added his voice to support Gen Lebed's efforts describing them as a "great step forward. Mr Chernomyrdin not only praised the peace plan but described the war and the sending of troops to Chechnya as "Russia's shame'.
It was surprising therefore to see Gen Lebed deprecate his own efforts before the Moscow press corps. Addressing his audience in a his familiar double-bass tones, the general, who heads Mr Yeltsin's security council, also raised eyebrows by announcing that between 70,000 and 90,000 people had died in the Chechen conflict.
A global figure of 40,000 deaths, mainly civilians, had previously been put forward although as early as February 1995 the human rights activist Mr Sergei Kovalyov had stated that 40,000 had been killed in Grozny alone.
Gen Lebed's tone at the press conference might have been due to some extent to a self-effacing attitude which he occasionally adopts, but towards the end of the briefing he warned those who might want to undermine his efforts. "The fighting has stopped, documents have been signed. May God forgive those to try to say this was wrong or illegal," he said.
Some Russian observers have expressed concern that a clause determining the Russian Federation to be indivisible has been left out of the document signed by Gen Lebed and the Chechen military commander Mr Aslan Maskhadov, while the Russian parliament is likely to oppose the change in the moratorium on Chechen independence claims from 10 years to five.
Communist Party leader Mr Gennady Zyuganov was quoted by Interfax as saying he was "astonished by the fact that these documents speak of international legal acts, because Chechnya's problem is exclusively Russia's internal affair".
Mr Zyuganov, whose party dominates the lower house, said he would call on the upper house to hold a debate on the legal authority of Gen Lebed, who was sent by Mr Yeltsin with special powers.
Earlier, lower house deputy speaker Mr Sergei Baburin, a hardline nationalist, told Interfax the peace deal would mean Chechen guerrillas will "penetrate deep into Russia".
In Chechnya, reliable sources have reported the setting up of administrative structures by the Chechen separatists. These include the establishment of Islamic Sharia courts.
Troop withdrawals and joint patrols continue and Russian news agencies report that one of the regiments taken out of Chechnya has been sent to the military-industrial city of Tula south of Moscow to help impose "law and order".
Two previous signed peace plans have fallen apart in Chechnya.
The major differences this time, however, are that Gen Lebed is apparently determined to see the war ended and the Chechens, who recaptured the capital Grozny from the Russians in August, are negotiating from a position of strength.
