KAVKAZ CHECKPOINT, Russia -- A top commander of Russian forces in Chechnya said yesterday that the Russian military was determined to destroy the Islamic militants in Grozny by the end of the winter, signaling that while the Russians have backed off from threats to bombard the Chechen capital this weekend, they still seek an early and decisive victory over the rebels.
"We won't allow them to survive the winter," Maj. Gen. Vladimir A. Shamanov, who commands the Western Group of Russian Forces, said of the rebel force in Grozny, a city that was heavily hit in the 1994-1996 war in Chechnya and whose marketplace has been reduced to rubble by the current bombardment.
The comments came as politicians in the administration of President Boris N. Yeltsin have begun to advertise their willingness to negotiate with the leaders of the breakaway republic.
Moscow has not relaxed its tough demands, including the stipulation that the Chechen authorities hand over Shamil Basayev, the Chechen warlord who led an offensive against Dagestan in August in an abortive avowed effort to create a new Islamic state.
The mention of negotiations appears intended, at least in part, to mollify Western governments worried about civilians caught up in the fighting. And while Russian politicians talk about negotiating, Russian forces continue to gain ground.
The main focus is on Grozny, which is surrounded by Russian troops. Early last week, the Russian military spurred an international outcry by dropping thousands of leaflets in the besieged Chechen capital urging the unknown number of civilians there to leave by yesterday or risk terrifying bombardment.
The Russian military quickly backed away from the ultimatum. But it has not changed its overall strategy: seizing Grozny and chasing the remnants of the Chechen rebel force and its core of Islamic militants into the mountains near Georgia, Chechnya's southern neighbor.
Shamanov is one of the leading architects of Russia's military campaign in Chechnya and a hawk on the Chechen question. He met with a small group of reporters at a checkpoint at the border between the Chechen republic and Ingushetia.
As he spoke, cars and buses of Chechen refugees shuttled back and forth across the border. About 79,000 Chechen refugees have fled to Ingushetia through this checkpoint, but about 56,000 have since returned, according to Col. Anatoly N. Khrulyov, the commander of the Kavkaz checkpoint.
These numbers would suggest that conditions are rough in the refugee camps in Ingushetia and that many people feel the situation in Chechnya may be stable enough -- under Russian control -- to return. The colonel added, however, that some refugees do appear afraid to go back to Chechnya until it is clear who is in charge in the breakaway region, where the 1994-1996 war ended with an agreement only to leave its status -- officially that of a Russian republic -- in limbo until 2001.
There still appears to be much fighting ahead, however, particularly over Grozny. Shamanov said the city remains a strategic objective, not because it is the Chechen capital but because several thousand rebels are believed to have taken refuge there.
"Grozny is not gold," he said. "Our task is to destroy the organized resistance of the bandits and terrorists."
