PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin yesterday gave his security chief, Mr Alexander Lebed, sweeping powers to settle the conflict in rebel Chechnya where Moscow has suffered heavy losses in more than a week of fighting.
But as the Kremlin presses for a deal with separatist fighters, who seized much of the regional capital Grozny in a bold raid, Moscow's top commander in the region cast doubt on prospects for a settlement.
The presidential press office said Mr Yeltsin had issued a decree that gave Mr Lebed vast powers to coordinate the activities of federal executive bodies" in achieving a Chechnya settlement.
Mr Yeltsin dissolved the State Commission on Chechnya, headed by the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, and other negotiating teams to clear the space for the ex paratroop general who has said he knows how to restore peace.
Mr Yeltsin insisted that his peace plan for Chechnya, which focuses on political methods, should remain intact, the press office said.
Interfax news agency said Mr Lebed would briefly visit Chechnya today to meet Russian and pro Moscow Chechen officials. He first visited Chechnya on Sunday and met the rebel chief of staff, Mr Aslan Maskhadov. But Mr Maskhadov's subsequent meeting with Russia's top military commander in Chechnya, Lieut Gen Konstantin Pulikovsky, had failed to end in a clear deal.
Gen Pulikovsky at first denied a rebel statement that he had agreed a ceasefire with Mr Maskhadov. Then he said their insistence on full independence from Moscow was obstructing peace deals.
"It is the position of the separatist leadership that stands in the way of a peaceful settlement," he said in a live interview with Russian television. "The separatists see Chechnya outside Russia.
The Izvestia newspaper said the decree was opposed by Chief of Staff, Gen Anatoly Chubais, because it would give too much power to Mr Lebed.
There are thousands of refugees, a vast crowd stretching out down the road, some on foot with their children, others in cars or lorries, some of them wounded, all exhausted.
These civilians trying to flee the fighting in Grozny have been waiting for three days for permission from the Russians, who have prevented them leaving the battlescarred city, once again the focal point of fighting between Russian forces and Chechen separatist rebels.
At the Russian checkpoint at the end of the road, the soldiers have precise orders: only women and children under 11 years' old are allowed to pass, and then only one foot.
On the other side of the roadblock, not a single car is to be seen on the road that leads to the next village, Berkat Yurt, 7 km away.
The Russians justify their action by arguing that some of the separatist rebels who entered the city on August 6th in a raid which broke Moscow's 18 month control over Grozny, may now try to escape disguised as civilians.
But for those attempting to escape the carnage of central Grozny, the Russian move comes across as just another arbitrary action which hits civilians hardest of all. Even the pro Moscow Chechen government has officially complained about the situation. Deputy Premier, Mr Abdul Bugayev, said that some 40,000 people were in the suburb of Staraya Sunzha on Grozny's east side, most of them sheltered by local families who have taken in as many as 30 refugees per household.
According to Mr Bugayev, there are at least 200 wounded in need of medical aid, including some whose lives may be in danger if the Russians do not let them leave or allow medical supplies to get through to them.
But the Russians continued yesterday to block a Red Cross truck carrying medicine and doctors, he said.
Civilians in Staraya Sunzha face the choice of returning to the centre of the city, where nine days of clashes have forced people to live in cellars with ever diminishing food stocks, or continue to wait in the suburb.
In Grozny yesterday afternoon, fighting had subsided and a tentative peace reigned.
But those who have fled asked themselves how long the calm will remain while separatist fighters still control parts of the city.
Mr Yeltsin's disappearance from the public eye ahead of a decisive run off vote on July 3rd, in which he beat a strong communist challenger and won four more years in office prompted speculation about his health.