RUSSIANS have reacted with scepticism to President Yeltsin's televised address to the nation, in which he announced that hostilities in Chechnya would end at midnight last night.
Details of Mr Yeltsin's peace plan included talks with Chechen leaders through mediators and "free and democratic elections" in the region.
Mr Yeltsin, fighting to remain in power at elections due on June 16th, has admitted that sending troops into Chechnya in January 1995 was the biggest mistake of his presidency.
The war has eroded his popularity, but a return to peace would give a big boost to his chances of re election, said Mr Nikolai Yadov, director of the St Petersburg branch of VTsIOM, Russia's leading market research company.
"As of now I still believe that Mr Gennady Zyuganov [leader of the Communist Party] is the main contender but should the ceasefire hold, Mr Yeltsin's popularity will receive a boost. Russians have seen peace plans before but they have seen them fail. This time they will wait to see what happens before they make their minds up to vote for Mr Yeltsin," Mr Yadov said.
Mr Yeltsin's recorded speech, delivered in a strong and firm voice and without many of the hesitancies and solecisms which have marked some of his recent addresses, took place against a background of anti war demonstrations throughout Russia.
These have "been organised by the Yabloko party of Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, who is running in third place behind Mr Zyuganov and Mr Yeltsin in opinion polls for the presidency.
Mr Yavlinsky spoke at the St Petersburg rally from a lorry outside the Winter Palace. He pointed out that more money was spent on the Chechen war in 1995 than on social services in all of Russia.
In the Moscow coup of August 1991 three young men were killed. In Moscow in October 1993 [when pro Yeltsin forces shelled the Russian parliament] 100 times as many people were killed. In Chechnya in the war 100 times as many again lost their lives. Where do we go from here?" he asked.
Demonstrators in the 2,000 strong crowd carried Russian flags and placards bearing the words: "Afghanistan Chechnya where next?" and the loudest applause came when a local headmaster declared over the public address system: Yeltsin the war criminal should be in the dock and not in the presidential chair."
Just 100 metres away at the Alexander I Column about 300 Communist anti war demonstrators carried the red flags with the hammer, sickle and star of the Soviet Union with a solitary black flag in their midst. When asked what the black flag signified one demonstrator, with no small measure of irony, replied: "Our fascist comrades have joined us."
While Mr Yeltsin did not mention who the "mediators" between the Russian government and the Chechen leaders would be, most observers believe that the Organisation for Security and Co operation in Europe (OSCE), which has observers on the ground in Chechnya, is best suited for the job.
The OSCE brokered peace talks between the parties in June of last year, but the ceasefire quickly broke down on the issue of Chechnya's status. Russia and the major international organisations agree Chechnya is an integral part of the Russian Federation, but the Chechen rebels under their President, Gen Dzhokhar Dudayev, want the region to be fully independent.
In the period between the Russian Security Council's formulation of the latest peace plan and Mr Yeltsin's address to the nation yesterday, Russian federal forces have been pounding Chechen villages in an attempt to gain as much territory as possible before the ceasefire. They have been accused by the OSCE of holding villages responsible collectively for terrorist acts by the Chechen rebels.
Reuter adds: About 30,000 communists and their allies marched in the centre of Minsk, the Belarussian capital, yesterday to support hardline President Alexander Lukashenko's plan to sign a "treaty of union" with Russia.
Placards held outside the city sports arena read "Unity between Belarus and Russia", "Down with nationalism" and "We want a union of Slav people".
