FOR EIGHT MONTHS, RUSSIAN TROOPS and armor pounded the breakaway Chechen republic into rubble. Then for nearly four months an uneasy peace reigned, after Islamic rebels agreed to a truce on July 30 that few expected to last. Last week the doomsayers looked fairly prophetic, as huge bomb blasts wracked the capital of Grozny and narrowly missed killing Moscow's handpicked political leader.
Prime Minister Doku Zavgayev, 55, a former communist apparatchik installed by the Kremlin on Nov. 1, was being driven in a heavily guarded motorcade through the ruined capital of Grozny when his car was rocked by two powerful bomb...
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