Putin Promises a Firm Hand--and Aid--in Chechnya

Approaching the first anniversary of his rise to power, President Vladimir V. Putin told the Russian people Monday night that he will continue to fight for a military victory over rebels in Chechnya and boasted of the nation’s reviving economy.

Putin, who was named acting president last New Year’s Eve after the surprise resignation of President Boris N. Yeltsin and then won election in March, used a rare interview on state television to list his successes and gloss over the shortcomings of his first year in office.

Confounding the expectations of many analysts, Putin--with approval ratings of 70% or more--has ended the year as popular as when he began. But in recent weeks, some liberal critics have voiced concern that Putin is trying to muzzle the free press and impose too much Soviet-style discipline on the new Russian democracy.

His decision this month to restore the old Soviet anthem, albeit with new words, and the prosecution of Vladimir A. Gusinsky, who controls Russia’s only independent television network, have aroused controversy among intellectuals.

But in the 30-minute interview, Putin sought to soften his tough-guy policies in Chechnya with a promise of more help for the Russian republic’s people. He also expressed a belief that Russians would never go back to the days of a tame, government-controlled press.

Amid reports that some Russians have begun to write laudatory books about Putin and put up bronze busts of him, the diminutive former KGB agent indicated that he has no such grandiose illusions about himself and pleaded with his admirers to avoid such activities.

“I would like citizens to perceive me as a man hired for this job, hired to carry out certain functional and professional duties for a set time period . . . someone with a four-year labor contract,” he said.

Discussing Russia’s attempts to eradicate the Chechen rebel movement and stop the republic’s struggle to break away from Moscow, Putin defended his decision to use massive military force, saying Chechnya had been taken over by “gangs and religious extremists.”

“We should bring this business to the end in a military sense,” Putin said. He added that the fighting, which has driven the rebels from most major urban areas, now will be carried out in mountainous areas by “special forces composed of professionals,” and not by ordinary conscripts. Gradually, he said, Russia will concentrate on restoring stability and rebuilding institutions in Chechnya.

Putin meanwhile stressed positive trends in the economy. He said that Russia was finishing the year with between 7% and 7.5% annual growth in gross domestic product and that in some industrial sectors the rise was more dramatic. He also congratulated his government and the parliament for enacting a 13% flat income tax to take effect next year, predicting that it will bring in more revenue than the current tax system.

Worries about press freedom are exaggerated, he said. “There must be no fears that the screws will be tightened. This would be counterproductive for the authorities themselves because the society today would no longer put up with it.”

In the realm of foreign policy, Putin suggested that he planned to focus more intently on Russian national interests than on pleasing the West.

Russia used to be feared by the West, but that did it no good, Putin said. Later, after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Russians fancied themselves so beloved by the world that “we [thought that] we didn’t even need a spoon because we thought that the dumplings were going to jump into our mouth all on their own,” he said.

Now, Putin suggested, Russia should be balanced and pragmatic.

“On one hand, we have to get rid of our imperial ambitions,” he said. “And on the other, we must quite clearly understand where our national interests lie, fight for these interests and clearly define them.”

He said those interests might mean dealing with nations, such as North Korea, considered problematic in the West. And it might mean intensifying ties with countries such as Iran and Iraq, which are seeking openings with other European countries.

That the president made the year-end appearance reflects that he “is not comfortable with many things he did this year and felt it important to explain himself once again,” said Sergei I. Grigoryants, a former Soviet dissident who chairs the Glasnost human rights fund.

He said he found Putin’s remarks about Chechnya discouraging. “It is unfortunately very clear: Putin still believes that he may resolve the situation in a military way.”

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Sergei L. Loiko and Yakov Ryzhak of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.