Court Clears Yeltsin on Chechnya Invasion : Russia: The case was brought by opposition lawmakers. They say ruling is a sign jurists are beholden to president.

Russia’s Constitutional Court on Monday absolved President Boris N. Yeltsin of any criminal wrongdoing in the deadly 7 1/2-month war against breakaway Chechnya.

The first major decision in the court’s two-year existence was purely symbolic, because even a verdict against the president would have carried no enforcement or punitive action.

But coming a day after both Russian and Chechen negotiators agreed to end military hostilities, the ruling by the court--which was created under a constitution largely written by Yeltsin--appeared to reflect eagerness among federal leaders to put the bloody conflict behind them.

Sunday’s peace pact--setting out terms for a cease-fire, exchange of prisoners and eventual disarmament of Chechens and withdrawal of most Russian forces--was still being celebrated as a breakthrough in restoring normal relations between Russia and Chechnya, even though some fighting continued and the republic’s fugitive rebel leader denounced the agreement.

At least six Russian soldiers were killed in the 24 hours after the accords were signed--one of the highest single-day death tolls in recent months. An estimated 20,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since Russian federal troops invaded Chechnya on Dec. 11.

The settlement covered only military issues, leaving unresolved the key dispute over whether Chechnya remains a part of Russia.

Chechen President Dzhokar M. Dudayev declared his republic independent in 1991 and gradually severed ties with Moscow, provoking Yeltsin to launch the invasion. Dudayev, who is in hiding in remote hills of Chechnya still controlled by the rebels, was quoted by Radio Liberty as saying his representatives at peace talks in Grozny, the Chechen capital, had been pressured into capitulating to Russia’s terms.

In Moscow, the case brought before the 19-member Constitutional Court by political opponents of Yeltsin’s asked the judges to rule whether the president had acted legally in ordering the invasion to crush Chechnya’s rebellion. After weighing testimony taken nearly a month ago and reviewing executive documents prepared for the December attack, the court ruled Yeltsin’s actions “absolutely constitutional.”

“It demonstrated that the president acted totally within his rights, that his actions were fully correct,” Valery M. Savitsky, representing the president at the proceedings, said of the court action. He accused the lawmakers who raised the constitutional issues of misunderstanding the role of the court and pressing for a moral judgment on consequences of the invasion.

Even Sergei A. Kovalev, Yeltsin’s human rights commissioner, had said he considered the military crackdown on Chechnya to be criminal because of the scope of death and destruction inflicted on civilians.

In what may have been a related development, presidential chief of staff Sergei A. Filatov told the Echo of Moscow radio station that an executive order abolishing Kovalev’s human rights commission had been prepared, though it has not been signed yet by Yeltsin.

Lawmakers who pressed the case against Yeltsin denounced the decision as a sign the court is too beholden to the president. “I didn’t hear in the verdict even the most subtle reproach of the president’s actions,” said Lev A. Ponomarev, leader of the Democratic Russia human rights movement. “The court separated the legal paperwork from the facts of life.”

Valery V. Borshchev, another opposition deputy in the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, predicted that the ruling will “demoralize” society and undermine efforts to find a full solution to the war.

Although the military issues were sorted out, negotiations are to resume Thursday on the more divisive political issues such as Chechnya’s status within Russia and Dudayev’s role in any future government.