RUSSIA's lower house of parliament, expressing concern at an upsurge of violence in Chechnya, yesterday urged President Yeltsin to halt the fighting and restart peace talks.
We call on you to stop all military actions, renew negotiations and expose (their contents) to the whole population of the Russian Federation," the State Duma said in a resolution approved by 272 votes for and four against.
It proposed talks in Moscow between the separatists and the Security Council, a group of top officials headed by Mr Yeltsin.
The Duma's resolution was non binding, and Mr Yeltsin has ignored similar calls in the past, but it signalled deepening concern at the renewal of fighting since he won a second term in an election run off on July 3rd.
The Russian troops' onslaught on villages in southern Chechnya, where they say rebels are holding out, ended a lull under a ceasefire which Mr Yeltsin signed with rebel leaders in late May in an effort to secure re election.
The rebels, whose demands for full independence have been ruled out by Moscow, have opted for the time being not to revert to all out warfare in retaliation. But they have prepared a plan of military action, including sabotage, it fighting continues.
In a strange twist to the 19 month old conflict, the rebel commander, Mr Salman Raduyev said on Thursday that the former separatist leader, Gen Dzhokhar Dudayev, was still alive, despite reports that he was killed in a rocket attack on April 20th.
Gen Dudayev led the separatist drive in the mountainous, mainly Muslim region from 1991 until his reported death, and suggestions that he is alive could provide inspiration for the rebels. His body has never been seen by Russian officials.
A Russian official dismissed the claims that he was alive.
But Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) added to the confusion by saying it could not confirm Gen Dudayev was dead.
"Death can only be confirmed by the person's corpse," an FSB spokesman said.
Mr Oleg Lobov, Mr Yeltsin's personal envoy to Chechnya, told the Duma the rebels were now restricted to about 40 groups of 5 to 25 fighters and that other scattered guerrillas totalled only about 3,000. He suggested the crisis was under control.
But Duma deputies expressed their concern by urging Mr Yeltsin to invite separatist leaders to a Security Council meeting which they said should be televised.
"Developments in the Chechen republic since the presidential election cause new concerns and give grounds for dark predictions," the Duma said in its resolution.
The Nationalities Minister, Mr Vyacheslav Mikhailov, told a news conference that Moscow was still willing to negotiate and that Russian and rebel military chiefs would meet soon.
But Mr Raduyev said he had acquired Stinger surface to air missiles to use against Russian warplanes and was ready to launch "a war without rules". This could involve attacks on Russian cities and railway lines and even chemical warfare.
A powerful bomb filled with metal fragments was planted in the waiting room of a Russian railway station yesterday but failed to go off properly.
Interfax news agency quoted police in Voronezh, about 350 km south of Moscow, as saying the detonator of the bomb hidden in a bag went off but failed to ignite the 1.5 kg of high explosive.
Itar Tass news agency said a further 1.5 kg of explosive was left in a bag next to the bomb.
The detonation, just after 6 a.m. (3 a.m. Irish time) simply threw the explosive charge across the station's waiting room floor, Interfax said.
Tass quoted the transport prosecutor, Mr Yuri Gorshenev, as saying the bomb had been intended to cause massive destruction.
Tass said police were looking for three suspects - one man and two women - and that photofit pictures indicated they came from the Caucasus region of southern Russia, which includes Chechnya. The airport, railway and bus stations were being watched.