Russia's New Chechnya?

Sergei Stepashin is in it again. When the former secret policeman was made Prime Minister of Russia back in May, he wasnt supposed to have much to do except cover Boris Yeltsins ample backside and make the usual feeble attempts at halting Russias economic dissolution. Suddenly hes got a war to win, and its a war that Stepashin has lost before. In Dagestani, a provivce that borders on Chechnya in Russias mountainous (and mostly Muslim) north Caucasus region, a rebel force is trying to join its Chechen neighbors in achieving a de facto independence from Russia and becoming part of Chechnya. Russian forces have begun attacking the rebels pooh-poohed by the official Russain news outlet as "bandits" -- with artillery and missile strikes. And Sergei Stepashin is in Dagestan, trying to get it right this time.

Inside Russias military, Stepashin is still reviled for sending a covert team into Chechnya during the conflict there and then abandoning them when the operation went sour. Which may explain why Stepashin, after flying to the Dagestani capital Makhachkala under Yeltsin's orders and meeting with local officials, had very little to say on strategic matters. But hed better have the military behind him now. The fighting, which intensified early Saturday when the militants (who may in fact be Chechens) crossed into Dagestan and began taking up positions around local villages, is the worst in the region since the Chechen war, which almost got Yeltsin impeached by the Duma last spring. But Stepashins main qualification for the Prime Ministers job was his ability to protect his boss, and of course he was appropriately confident. "Bandits are bandits, and they must be dealt with accordingly," Stepashin said. "We have the strength and the means." Hed better be right, or Russias revolving-door government could be spinning again by fall.