An Inter Press Service Feature

MOSCOW, Dic 29 (IPS) - Her fists clenched tight in anger, middle- aged Lena Andreyeva does little to conceal her fury against the Chechens. "We should finish this problem once and for all. Why should our army hold back from hitting civilians when they are all against us?"

Added a tough-looking youngster in a studded leather jacket: "For the first time since 1991, Yeltsin is doing the right thing. We would want to see the Chechen revolt completely crushed."

They were part of a small rally in central Moscow Thursday, the few dozen demonstrators fully backing President Boris Yeltsin's military strike against the rebellious republic and expressing a longing to see napalm bombs dropped on Chechnya.

It was a bizarre sight which few political observers could have imagined they would see in Russia: Yeltsin getting a firm foothold in the nationalist camp even as he loses his balance on the second foot that was once planted with the democrats.

But it is a fact that Yeltsin has won the unqualified backing of ultra-nationalists for directing the military intervention in Chechnya while his erstwhile supporters on the democratic side have deserted him.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party is one of only two recognised parliamentary factions which has endorsed the armed operation in Chechnya. Ironically, the other one is the Reformist Union led by ex-finance minister Boris Fyodorov, which has also come out in favour of the use of force to squash Chechen separatism.

In Chechnya, Russian armed forces continue to consolidate their positions inside the capital city of Grozny while fighter bombers have reportedly been used again Thursday though the defence ministry earlier denied such strikes.

The end of 1994 brings with it more churning in Russia's turbulent political seas as the operation in Chechnya unfolds confounding the leaders in Moscow and forcing new alliances even as earlier ones are broken.

Yegor Gaidar, once a close Yeltsin ally who ushered in the first phase of radical economic reforms during 1992, on Wednesday announced that his Russia's Choice parliamentary faction had severed ties with the Russian president.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service