MOSCOW - Just as his political fortunes seemed to be rallying, the Chechen war has reared up in the face of President Yeltsin with the death of 26 Russian troops and the wounding of 51 in a rebel attack timed to undermine one of the most important fixtures of his election campaign.
As Mr Yeltsin went wooing voters in the southern Russian city of Budennovsk yesterday scene of a mass hostage taking by Chechen separatists last year, news filtered back to Moscow that rebels had laid waste a Russian convoy, some 30 miles south of Grozny.