Dagestan Explodes (Just in Time for Yeltsin)

You dont have to be a conspiracy theorist to see that the latest flare-up in Dagestan is pretty useful to President Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin publicly castigated the Russian military Tuesday after a renewed outbreak of fighting and a weekend bomb attack by separatist guerrillas that killed 61 people at an army facility, pooh-poohing the claims of his prime minister, Vladimir Putin, that the rebels had been vanquished. "This certainly came at a convenient time for Yeltsin," says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier. "Just as the scandals swirling around the Kremlin reach fever pitch, Dagestan heats up again and pushes everything else out of the headlines. Of course the connection is probably only circumstantial, since the rebels have their own agenda, but most of the Russian press considers it part of a conspiracy."

Leaving aside tales of Machiavellian machinations in Moscow, the war in the Caucasus looks set to grow into a long-term destabilizing factor in Russia. The Chechnya-based rebels appear able to move in and out of Dagestan with ease, and have caused consternation by attacking Russian forces on two flanks simultaneously. And by retaliating with air raids on Chechnya, Moscow risks ending the cease-fire that ended its disastrous two-year war against Chechen separatists. "The rebels know the territory a lot better than the Siberian riot policemen Moscow has been sending in, so its not surprising that the government forces have failed to stabilize the situation," says Meier. "And rising tensions throughout the region could ignite several wars and turn into a nightmare for Moscow." One that persists long after President Yeltsin has fired his last prime minister.