Under Pressure, Yeltsin Prepares New Effort to End War in Chechnya

With signatures from a million war-weary citizens on his desk and images from a huge peace rally on his television, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Monday prepared a fresh effort to halt his widely despised war against the separatist republic of Chechnya.

Just last month, Yeltsin had talked tough about destroying the Chechen rebels once and for all, slamming his fist into his hand as he vowed to root out the militants and flatten their hideaways.

But public frustration with the costly, bloody war has swelled. Yeltsin, just one week away from announcing his reelection plans, increasingly looks ready to listen.

He has already announced plans to spend $4.2 billion rebuilding the Chechen roads, hospitals and factories his troops bombed to rubble. On Monday, he huddled with top advisors after dropping hints that a new peace initiative is in the works.

To analysts, his motive seems clear: “The presidential elections will be won by the candidate . . . who puts an end to the war,” said lawmaker Sergei Belyaev, who leads Yeltsin’s party in parliament.

“If he does not withdraw Russian troops right away, that could kill his already low chances for reelection,” political analyst Andrei V. Vasilevsky agreed.

Vasilevsky said Yeltsin needs a peaceful, prosperous spring to have any hope of wooing the voters who have abandoned his party in disgust. But the president cannot hope for peace while Russian soldiers remain hunkered behind machine guns in Chechen territory. “The only way to ensure there will be a minimum of trouble is not to have any troops there,” Vasilevsky said.

Sending the same message in a defiant rally Monday, thousands of Chechens crammed the square in front of the bombed-out government building in their capital, Grozny, to call for the Kremlin to withdraw.

Federal forces, placed on red alert as the demonstration spilled into its second day, approached the crowd in armored personnel carriers but did not shoot. Even with tanks and grenade launchers positioned around the square, demonstrators chanted, danced and waved Islamic and Chechen flags.

Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency tallied up to 10,000 participants by midafternoon and reported that hundreds stayed after nightfall, camping out by bonfires under portraits of their rebel leader, Gen. Dzhokar M. Dudayev.

Russian troops first stormed into Chechnya 14 months ago in an effort to crush the republic’s independence bid. Instead, they suffered humiliating defeats as small groups of rebels outmaneuvered and outfought them.

With both his reputation and the army’s on the line, Yeltsin has been signaling his intention to pull his troops out of the frustrating, embarrassing war. The head of the Moscow-installed government in Chechnya has predicted that Russian soldiers could begin withdrawing within three weeks.