RUSSIA . . . CIVIL WAR LOOMING

Russian President Boris Yeltsin authorized the use of force against the breakaway republic of Chechnya today, telling his government it should use "all means at the state's disposal" to disarm "illegal" troops in the tiny Caucasus Mountain republic. Already today, Russian warplanes flew over Chechnya's capital, Grozny, and Russian troops massed nearby. The standoff, which has been brewing for weeks but generated little serious international concern, centers on accusations from Moscow that the government of Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev is a criminal regime that rules through gangsters and terrorists. Dudayev unilaterally declared independence in 1991. Yeltsin's decree was not necessarily politically popular and one group of Russian lawmakers wrote: "All responsibility for the blood that would be spilled will rest personally with you, and Russia will go from a democracy to a police state."