Russian Troops Take Chechnya’s 2nd-Largest City

Russia’s military has taken control of the second-largest city in Chechnya, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin declared Friday, and, buoyed by popular support for his war in the separatist republic, Putin confirmed that he will run for president next year.

The seizure of Gudermes marks an important step in Russia’s campaign to crush Chechnya. The morale-boosting victory leaves Russia’s military leaders more loath than ever to compromise in the face of intense Western pressure for a political solution to the war.

As Western criticism of the war mounts, Russian officials are increasingly defiant. Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev, for example, accused the United States on Friday of trying to weaken Russia.

Sergeyev blamed the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for an “extremely unstable” world situation in 1999.

The Chechen conflict has sharpened the sense of confrontation between Moscow and Washington, reviving Russian anger over the U.S.-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia earlier this year. Angered at the growing Western criticism, Russian officials repeatedly have warned that the war is an internal matter.

Sergeyev claimed that America wants to dominate the oil-rich Caspian Sea region--and thus has a strategic interest in the conflict in the North Caucasus.

He said the United States is doing everything it can to stop Russia from regaining control of Chechnya and increasing Moscow’s sway in the region.

“This is a challenge to Russia,” Sergeyev said. “Its goal is to weaken our position and push us out of the Caspian region, the Caucasus and Central Asia.”

U.S. and European leaders have voiced concerns about massive and indiscriminate Russian bombing of Chechen settlements leading to high civilian casualties. But the pressure has only hardened anti-Western sentiment in Russia.

Popular sentiment is solidly behind the war and its main architect, Putin, who has rapidly overtaken other presidential candidates in the polls. Putin continued to play the military hawk Friday, promising to deliver a big boost in funding for Russia’s military.

But a top Kremlin official denied any political motive for the war. Spokesman Igor V. Shabdurasulov said Friday that it is blasphemous to link the Chechen war to upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. He said anti-Russian hysteria is rife in the lead-up to next week’s summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Istanbul, Turkey.

The summit is expected to be a focus for Western concern over Russia’s approach in the war.

Russian forces pushed into Chechnya in early October, after a series of bombings of apartment blocks that Russian leaders blamed on Chechen guerrillas. The invasion also was in reprisal for Chechen guerrilla attacks on the neighboring republic of Dagestan in the summer.

The conflict follows Russia’s disastrous--and unsuccessful--1994-96 war to crush Chechen independence.

In a sign of Russia’s determination to see this war through to its end, Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov rejected an offer made by the OSCE in Helsinki, Finland, on Friday to act as mediator in an effort to end the war through a political settlement.

TV footage of Gudermes on Friday showed Russian soldiers walking down quiet, nearly deserted streets, which Russians had bombarded heavily for several weeks before moving into the city to take control.

Chechen guerrilla fighters appeared to have pulled out of the city, despite earlier claims by Russia’s military that Gudermes had been surrounded and blockaded.

Russian attack planes launched heavy attacks on the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Friday, and on the southwestern town of Bamut, a rebel stronghold, flying 50 sorties. But military officials were still insisting that they can win the war without storming Grozny.

Russia’s heavy reliance on bombs and rockets to shatter Chechen towns and villages before ground forces move in is a key difference between the current operation and the 1994-96 war. In that war, Russia blockaded and stormed the towns with tanks, in botched operations that cost the lives of thousands of Russian soldiers.

Another key difference is that Russia’s main media are united behind the current war, showing essentially only the positive side.

In an indication of the level of support for the war, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexi II, issued a statement Friday strongly backing the war against Muslim Chechnya.