Doing Well by Doing Good

Like most Russians, Alexander Lebed has come to despise the brutal and unwinnable war in Chechnya. Unlike most Russians, Lebed may be able to do something to stop the conflict. The former general, now President Boris Yeltsin’s chief security advisor, this week arranged a new cease-fire between rebel Chechen forces fighting for national independence and the Russian army that has been trying for 20 months to suppress them. He has also drafted a plan for Yeltsin’s approval that would put him in charge of ending the war, among other things by giving him control over Russian forces in Chechnya. Lebed has never been shy either about criticizing Russia’s disastrously inept operations against the Chechens or in reaching for ever more power. If he can end the unpopular war, the ultimate power he seeks--the presidency--could become a more achievable goal.

Lebed was scathing in describing what he saw during his secret mission to Chechnya over the weekend. He depicted Russian soldiers as “hungry, lice-infested and underclothed,” forced to serve as “cannon fodder” because of the failed policies of senior officials.

Lebed had earlier helped his political cause by calling for replacing Russia’s widely evaded and much hated military draft with all-volunteer armed forces. His sympathy for the plight of common soldiers and his unsparing contempt for those who have so badly led and so poorly looked after them can only boost his popular standing.

That may well be a matter of near-term significance. Yeltsin, whose sagging health led to his virtual disappearance in the last weeks of the recent presidential campaign, remains out of sight, officially recovering from exhaustion. Whether he will survive the four-year term for which he was reelected is an open question. Lebed has unabashedly spoken of himself as Yeltsin’s eventual successor, a prospect that alarms many in the Yeltsin camp and in the military. But if Lebed proves to be the architect of peace in Chechnya he will clearly have taken a big step forward in the political scramble.