CHECHEN separatists, worried about the fate of the latest peace deal with Russia after the sacking of its Moscow author, Gen Alexander Lebed, yesterday confirmed plans to hold elections on January 27th.
President Yeltsin's spokesman said Gen Lebed, dismissed from two top security posts on Thursday, would soon be formally sacked as Moscow's envoy to Chechnya. Other top officials said Gen Lebed's departure would not affect the Chechnya peace process.
ITAR-TASS news agency said Chechnya's pro separatist parliament had decided to hold elections for a local legislature and regional leader, confirming an earlier decision by the separatist leadership. It did not say when the decision had been confirmed.
Elections are an eventual goal under the peace deal Gen Lebed signed with the rebels on August 31st. They are supposed to be arranged by a joint commission of officials from Moscow and Chechnya, but the rebels are pushing ahead unilaterally.
President Yell sin sacked Gen Lebed as his national security adviser and secretary of his policy making Security Council, saying he was tired of his squabbling with other Kremlin officials.
"Lebed's dismissal as the presidential envoy to Chechnya is a matter of time," Yeltsin's spokesman, Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky said. "New candidates for the job are being discussed now."
Gen Lebed told a news conference after his sacking that he would not miss the Kremlin posts but that he regretted losing the post as President Yeltsin's envoy in Chechya and head of Moscow's delegation at peace talks with the Chechen rebels.
Under the August 31 agreement, fighting stopped in Chechnya and Russian troops started leaving the region after 2 months of a campaign in which they suffered some humiliating defeats.
The deal, which also postponed for five years the settlement of a dispute over Chechnya's status, was hailed by ordinary Russians. But many Moscow politicians called it a capitulation which would encourage separatism elsewhere in Russia.
Rebel leaders said on Thursday they saw Gen Lebed's sacking as a sigh that the "party of war" was gaining the upper hand in the Kremlin and that they were ready for the resumption of fighting if Moscow broke the terms of the peace deal.
A spokesman for the separatist Checheo government, Mr Akhyad Idigov, said international observers would asked to monitor the election, which would choose a president and a parliament for the region.
Representatives of the "opposition" the Moscow backed Chechen government of Mr Doku Zavgayev would be invited to join the electoral commission.
It was not clear if Moscow would recognise the results if the elections went ahead wit bout due consultation.