CHECHEN FIGHTING RESUMES.

Russian attacks continued in southeastern Chechnya May 11. Russian commander Lt. Gen. Mikhail Yegorov said the Yeltsin-mandated cease-fire had “brought no positive results” from a military point of view and that now that it was over, the Russian forces would crush the remaining Chechen formations. Earlier there had been a flurry of speculation that Yeltsin might extend the cease-fire, as Clinton had requested. Interfax said that such a plan was under consideration, but Itar-Tass quoted a Yeltsin aide as saying that was not true. And again on May 11, no information was released about the fate of Fred Cuny, the American relief worker who has been missing in Chechnya since April 9, but Chechen authorities told Radio Liberty there was an unconfirmed report that Cuny’s body has been found. Meanwhile, a new Russian estimate of the cost of the war was released. First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets reported that the fighting had cost $420 million and reconstruction would take $1 billion, Interfax said. Soskovets claimed that the costs of the fighting had already been covered within the budget. His figures, however, are far below the $5 billion price tag that most Russian and Western observers have set for the war so far.

More Details on Clinton’s Moscow Breakfast.