NEW UNCERTAINTIES IN CHECHNYA

. President Boris Yeltsin’sstatement about postponing the envisaged elections from Novemberinto next year, and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin’s remarkthat "as far the negotiating process is concerned, Dudayevdoes not exist for us," appear to have suddenly heated upthe military and political situation. On August 9, pro-Dudayevforces attacked the military airport in Grozny, killing two andwounding six Russian soldiers. Other Chechen detachments attackedRussian positions elsewhere, but there was no immediate word oncasualties. As Radio Russia remarked in its commentary August10, it is the pro-independence groups that insist on holding theelections, whereas the Chechen groups installed in Grozny byMoscow, led by Aslanbek Khodzhiev and Umar Avturkhanov, do notwant elections because they anticipate losing. The commentarysuggested that the resistance of Grozny’s pro-Moscow governmentto elections could ignite a new civil war within Chechnya.

No Prisoners Exchanged Yet.