Separatists Send Kremlin Mixed Messages

About the time that President Vladimir V. Putin’s ultimatum to the rebels in Chechnya expired, the television in Khalamo Chagayev’s home in the Chechen village of Avtury suddenly started showing Chechen fighters killing Russian prisoners.

“A fighter on the tape said that this was their reply to the ultimatum,” Chagayev said.

It was a week ago that Putin went on national television and gave the Chechen separatists 72 hours to turn in their weapons and contact Russian authorities. In the days since, public debate has focused on whether Putin’s statement was, in fact, an ultimatum to surrender or whether it was a veiled invitation to begin peace talks.

There is little clarity about the Chechen position either. In the hours before the deadline expired Thursday, an envoy from Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov met with a Russian government representative to discuss peace moves. That was the first time since the war in the republic began two years ago that the two sides acknowledged speaking to each other directly.

But at the same time, as Maskhadov was apparently signaling a readiness to talk peace, Chechen fighters began to come out of the mountains. For the last three days, sometimes fierce gun battles have raged in the republic.

On their official Web site, the rebels claim to have launched a major offensive, with operations underway in half a dozen regions of Chechnya. They also claim to have seized control of several major roads. However, attacks on only three villages could be confirmed.

In Kurchaloi, rebel fighters assaulted a police station, killing at least two policemen. In Shali, they attacked the military commandant’s quarters and burned a local courthouse, killing two policemen and kidnapping a third--according to official Russian reports. The rebels’ Web site claimed the death count reached 50 Russian servicemen.

“The fighters have started to act more brazenly, in an open manner, as if they are flaunting their prowess,” said Sharip Alikhodzhiyev, head of the Shali district administration. “They want to intimidate the rest of the people in Chechnya by showing contempt for Putin’s words.”

A few miles away in the village of Avtury, where Chagayev lives, rebel fighters seized control of the local TV station and forced it to broadcast their grainy and gory videotape before fleeing.

“This speaks for itself,” the 39-year-old Chagayev said. “None of the fighters intends to lay down his weapon and surrender to the federal side. It is clear that it has all gone too far. Many fighters do not see a way out for themselves except either defeating the Russian troops or dying.”

After Putin’s deadline expired, Kremlin officials downplayed the suggestion that it had been an ultimatum. Presidential advisor Sergei Yastrzhembsky argued that an ultimatum is a threat and that Putin had not said what would happen after the deadline passed.

Other observers noted that Putin for the first time made a mention of the possibility that some fighters were not simply “bandits and terrorists” but may have taken up arms for a cause. This was seen as a move on the president’s part toward peace talks.

“This, undoubtedly, is a rather important change in the position of the president, who in public has always been strongly and categorically against any kind of negotiations with Chechen terrorists,” said Yevgeny Kiselyov, anchor of the weekly magazine show “Itogi” on Moscow’s TV6 station.

But others saw Putin’s language as deliberately vague.

Similarly, it was unclear whether the mixed signals on the Chechen side were an indication of discord between Maskhadov and his field commanders or part of a deliberate strategy. Russian officials have long said that Maskhadov no longer has much, if any, control over Chechen commanders. Still, no other figure on the rebel side has more political authority, and it is possible that the rebel side was also seeking maximum advantage by sending mixed signals.

In Chechnya, few residents believed Putin’s deadline was anything other than an ultimatum, and for the most part they described it as ill-considered, disingenuous, or both.

“It is unreal to expect fighters to turn in their weapons in 72 hours--this is how we understood Putin,” said Muslim Dadashev, a 46-year-old resident of the town of Argun. “When the Russian leadership was making that ultimatum, it knew well in advance that the idea would never work.”

Several noted that there were no procedures established for arms surrenders and no depots arranged to store any weapons.

“Today, the republic is a total mess, there is lawlessness everywhere, there is looting, there are summary executions,” said Lomali Tibishov, a 32-year-old resident of the Chechen capital, Grozny. “The situation is unstable, unclear and dangerous. And it is in this situation that fighters are urged to lay down weapons? Do the federals think the Chechens are out of their minds?”

As for Chagayev, he’s now preparing for the worst. He believes that no Western group claiming to stand for human rights will bother to protest Russian actions in Chechnya anymore.

“The fighters have shown their monstrous and brutal answer to what seemed like a civilized and humane request of the Russian leadership to lay down weapons,” he said. “This is exactly what the Russians needed to prove their point to the Council of Europe. . . .

“They can do whatever they want in Chechnya, and the rest of the world--having heard what Putin said and having seen the tape--will not even consider stepping in.”

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Special correspondent Mayerbek Nunayev in Chechnya and Alexei Kuznetsov of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.