A NEW ceasefire has silenced the guns in Grozny, more or less, and for the time being, at least. But the infighting is only just starting in the corridors of the Kremlin, thanks to the arrival of tough man Alexander Lebed, who boasts that he can resolve the conflict in Chechnya, where, as he says, weak and corrupt ministers before him have failed.
Ordinary Russians many of whom gave their votes to the retired general in the first round of the presidential election, thus forcing President Yeltsin to reward him with the post of national security chief are watching with a small degree of hope and a great deal of fascination. Will Gen Lebed, a straight talking military officer with no previous political experience, prove a knight in shining armour or will he slip up in the unfamiliar world of Kremlin intrigues? As the popular joke has it, will Gen Lebed, whose name means "swan" in Russian, soon turn into a duck?
Certainly, considering he has only been in the administration for two months, he has made a lot of enemies. The thick set, craggy faced general, who looks like the superman character in the adverts for extra strength lavatory fluids, acts with about the same subtlety. No sooner had he been appointed in June than he demanded the resignation of the Defence Minister, Gen Pavel Grachev, and the head of the Federal Security Service, Gen Mikhail Barsukov. Now he has declared war on almost everyone else surrounding Mr Yeltsin.
To the delight of Russians used to boring, mealy mouthed politicians, he went on the political rampage last week, after returning from the lightning trip to Chechnya where, in the capacity of Mr Yeltsin's envoy to the region, he helped to set up the latest ceasefire. Deeply shocked by what he saw, Gen Lebed, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, spoke his mind at a press conference last Monday.
Russian conscript soldiers in Chechnya were half starved, lousey and undressed," he declared in his distinctive growl. The root of the Chechnya problem lay in Moscow. The state commission, which, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, was supposed to be dealing with the crises, was ineffective. The puppet government installed by the Kremlin in Grozny was worse. Its leader Gen Doku Zavgayev, was turning a blind eye to the diversion of federal funds to the rebels and misleading Moscow with "a torrent of lies".
Gen Lebed, who gained a reputation for decisiveness when he stopped ethnic fighting in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova, said Mr Yeltsin would immediately be signing a decree transferring responsibility for Chechnya from Mr Chernomyrdin to himself.
The decree did not materialise straight away. The liberal newspaper Izvestia said the Prime Minister and Mr Yeltsin's head of administration, Mr Anatoly Chubais, put up a fight against it because they feared it would give Gen Lebed too much power. On Thursday, however, the general got his way. Mr Chernomyrdin, who will now concentrate on the economy, announced the cabinet which will continue reforms during the second Yeltsin presidency and, with the sincerity of a snake, wished Gen Lebed luck.
Again the general flew off to the region and again he came back pointing the finger of accusation.
At another press conference on Friday he sarcastically called the Interior Minister, Gen Anatoly Kulikov bone of the main heroes of the war" and said he could not work with him. President Yeltsin must choose, "only one must stay Lebed or Kulikov." So far the Kremlin leader has not responded to this call for another sacking.
The Russian media love Gen Lebed's bull in a china shop behaviour. On the independent channel NTV, the popular satirical puppet show Kukly, which was inspired by Spitting Image on British TV, portrayed Gen Lebed as the "Terminator".
"To finish off these Chechens, we need the Terminator," Mr Yeltsin's advisers said. "Yes, Yes," agreed the ageing, drunken president "bring in the Thermometer (sic)." And on came a puppet, clad in silver foil, looking like Robocop.
Russians are waiting to see, however, what concrete policies lie behind Gen Lebed's bluster. He claims to have found "a common language" with the Chechen rebel leaders he met twice last week and, for their part, the separatists are giving him the benefit of doubt. It all depends now on the political solutions he offers, or is allowed by the Kremlin to offer.
Gen Lebed himself has acknowledged that there are many people in Moscow and the Russian military who would like to see him "break his neck". His car was shot at twice when he visited Chechnya and the bullets were apparently "friendly fire" from federal checkpoints. He may be the Terminator but he is also Russia's most vulnerable man.