. . . RUSSIA WAFFLES

While the Kremlin gave no immediate response, Deputies in the Duma, or lower house of parliament, blasted the initial government decision to send troops to Chechnya. "The country is in crisis," said one, reformer Boris Fyodorov, joining a unanimous call for a special commission to probe the war. Still, the Deputies rejected a limit on President BorisYeltsin's power to run the military offensive, and -- in a slap at widely criticized Defense Minister Pavel Grachev -- ordered the army's general staff to report directly to Yeltsin.