Stuck In Chechnya

In response, Russian generals lashed out as their Chechen adversaries hoped. From now on, Moscow announced, no Chechen male between the ages of 10 and 60 would be considered a refugee. They would be subjected to checks, and those suspected of "terrorism" would undergo further verification in detention centers. In the last war, these "filtration centers" were notorious as places of torture and death. This measure outraged the West, and Moscow quickly backed down. Now only males from 15 on will be subject to checks.

The 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.

Military sources say the two generals had been removed for objecting to the cease-fire. A Russian observer of the military told TIME that Shamanov, known for an abrasive tongue, was particularly vehement: he reportedly declared that "no lieutenant colonel will ever stop me in Chechnya." Former kgb Lieut. Colonel Putin's response was swift: he removed him. But faced with an uproar in top military circles, he backed down--halfway.

A fierce critic of Moscow's policy, neighboring Ingushetia's President Ruslan Aushev believes Putin is heading toward disaster. Russian generals have learned nothing, he told TIME last week. Troops lack the motivation to fight a long war, and "tanks and artillery solve nothing here." Sure, the massive men and materiel Russia is throwing into the war should eventually prevail--for a time. Moscow has committed 140,000 men to crush the revolt of a Chechen population hovering around 100,000. Sooner or later, Russian troops "will get into Grozny and raise the flag," says Aushev. "But what then?"

Last week's raids help answer that question. They serve to remind the Russians of a very nasty reality about wars in Chechnya. Capturing a town does not make you the victor. It makes you the target.