Yeltsin to Campaign Where Chechens Retaliated at Russia

President Boris N. Yeltsin will take his campaign for reelection to the southern Russian city of Budennovsk this week, his office announced Saturday, in a high-stakes political gamble that will place him at the scene of one of his greatest humiliations.

On a three-day swing beginning Monday through the Stavropol region that neighbors war-ravaged Chechnya, Yeltsin will confront the Russian community that bore the brunt of Chechen wrath for a military onslaught that has killed as many as 30,000 people.

The decision to face the angry residents of Budennovsk reflects both a risky strategy for the troubled incumbent and his desperate determination to win a second term in the June 16 presidential election.

It was at Budennovsk last June that Chechen guerrillas retaliated for the Kremlin’s assault on their separatist homeland by grabbing more than 2,000 civilian hostages, provoking a series of bungled government attempts to free the captives that contributed heavily to the 150-plus death toll.

Yeltsin was attending the annual summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations in Halifax, Canada, at the time but declined to cut his foreign tour short because of the crisis. Even after his return, he disappeared from public view for several days, leaving the tense negotiations with the Chechen gunmen to Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin.

The Duma, the lower house of parliament, voted no-confidence in Yeltsin’s leadership after the debacle and forced him to fire three of his top Cabinet members.

Budennovsk sustained widespread damage in the four-day shooting melee that ensued between the Chechen guerrillas and federal forces.

“The president wants to see the reconstruction of Budennovsk, in which virtually all Russia is taking part, and visit the town’s hospital, restored by Moscow builders at his instruction on funds from the Russian capital’s budget,” the Interfax news agency quoted presidential aide Anatoly Korabelshchikov as saying.

While reconstruction of the Budennovsk hospital may have eased some of the bitterness of Russians there after the deadly drama, many jittery residents of the Stavropol region continue to blame the Kremlin for the terrorism and insecurity to which the war has exposed them.

Yeltsin’s tour is likely to be closely controlled by his protective entourage of aides and handlers, limiting the chance of an angry confrontation by local residents. Most Russian media have also been providing rosy coverage of his campaign, some because of the state support they still depend on and others, like so-called Independent Television, because top executives are actively working for Yeltsin’s reelection.

Nevertheless, his choice of Budennovsk as a campaign stop shows the aggressive tack he is taking in the battle against current front-runner Gennady A. Zyuganov, the Communist Party leader. Zyuganov, by contrast, has been focusing on “red belt” regions already loyal to the former ruling party.