AFTER cooling his heels for a further day, Russia's security chief, Gen Alexander Lebed, received a pointed snub from President Yeltsin's office when he was ordered by a presidential clerk to submit in writing his plans for a settlement of the Chechen conflict.
After that, Gen Lebed was told, Mr Yeltsin might arrange a meeting or a telephone conversation.
The order was complied with and some details of the plan, including Russia's commitment not to use force, have leaked out.
The latest snub was part of a bizarre series of events in which Mr Yeltsin openly criticised Gen Lebed's peace efforts on Thursday last, expressed conditional support the following night, and since then has been unavailable to attend an urgent meeting to discuss the details.
Mr Yeltsin is believed to be on holiday at the Zavidovo nature reserve north-west of Moscow, a favourite haunt of a former Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev. His prolonged absence from the Kremlin and his contradictory statements have, once more, increased speculation about his health.
There had been speculation, too, that Gen Lebed might be about to tender his resignation. But asked about this yesterday he denied it in characteristically cryptic fashion by using a Russian-Jewish proverb: When Abram Semyonovich was asked about his health, he replied, "I have no intention of raising your hopes."
In its main headline yesterday the liberal newspaper, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, said that by trying to solve the Chechen problem Gen Lebed was risking his political career and perhaps even his life, an oblique reference to the methods used by those who want the war to resume.
In Chechnya Gen Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, the local Russian commander, and Mr Aslan Maskhadov, his Chechen counterpart, finally signed an agreement to consolidate the current ceasefire following the return of arms captured by the Chechens and the delayed withdrawal of Russian troops. This is expected to take place in the next couple of days.
Agreement on a political settlement, however, is still a long way off.
According to the Russian independent news agency, Interfax, Gen Lebed's plan includes a commitment by Russia to renounce force as a means of settling the Chechen problem; keeping Chechnya as part of the Russian Federation with a special, as yet undefined, status; parallel troop withdrawal by both sides; a five-year cooling-off period before a decision on the political status of the region, in the course of which a peace forum would be set up on the basis of free and fair elections; and finally a referendum on Chechnya's political status.
The main issue at present is whether Chechnya should have its own armed forces or whether armed Chechen rebels should become part of the Russian army.
