Russians, Chechens Assume Latest Cease-Fire Won’t Last

Russia and Chechnya agreed on another cease-fire in their 2-month-old war Wednesday, but even as negotiators were hammering out the final details, Russian and Chechen fighters said they intend to ignore it.

“Cease-fires are for the people who sign them, and they try not to shoot at each other while doing the signing,” an officer of Russia’s Interior Ministry joked nervously at a roadblock near the city of Samashki, 16 miles west of the Chechen capital, Grozny. It was dark and rainy, and the officer edgily shouted at approaching drivers to turn off their headlights so snipers would not see him.

One of his men muttered: “Cease-fire or not, I’m shooting at whatever moves tonight.”

Ten minutes down the same road, Chechen fighters ran their own, more relaxed checkpoint. Ramsan, a 26-year-old in a leather jacket with a weapon slung over his shoulder, laughed at hearing that a cease-fire was to begin at midnight Wednesday.

“Well, I don’t know about that,” he said. “I already have plans tonight.”

Two top Russian military and intelligence officials warned Tuesday that the Chechens were probably just stalling for time and said the truce was unlikely to last.

Wednesday, Chechen President Dzhokar M. Dudayev agreed that the prospects for peace are dim.

“You never can stop a war by means of negotiations between commanders,” Dudayev told the Baltic News Service and an Estonian newspaper in an interview from an undisclosed location. Dudayev said that only talks between presidents and prime ministers are likely to bear fruit.

Russian army soldiers and Chechen guerrillas fought Wednesday outside the southern village of Stary Atagi.

Dudayev’s fighters seemed in good spirits, despite having been pushed out of the capital. In a village still under Chechen control, Chechen Vice President Zelimkhan A. Yanderbiyev said the war would go on despite heavy civilian losses.

“Grozny is more or less occupied, that’s a fact, but it’s not a tragedy and certainly not the end of the war,” said Yanderbiyev, a quiet, balding man wearing a red tie and a flannel shirt under his camouflage suit. “Freedom truly demands sacrifices, and while we wish those sacrifices were less burdensome for our people, we want our freedom.”

The cease-fire announced Wednesday left Yanderbiyev unimpressed.

“We don’t trust the Russians, absolutely do not trust them,” he said. “But who knows, it could happen. . . . In the next few days, we’ll see whether this is a game.”

Few of Dudayev’s men seemed ready to wait that long.

“They cannot be serious about this cease-fire thing,” said Almar Bakayev, a 27-year-old taxi driver from Grozny who bore black scars on his cheeks and forehead--the calling cards of nine shrapnel fragments removed from his face in January.

“I think (the Russians’) ammunition has just run low,” Bakayev said. “Once they’ve restored their supplies, they’ll give you such a cease-fire that you’ll wonder where your ears are.”

Times special correspondent Sergei Loiko contributed to this report.