AT LEAST four Russian soldiers were killed as fighting raged yesterday with separatist rebels in Chechnya, Russia's breakaway region which President Yeltsin plans to visit later this month.
Russian news agencies said rebels staged 13 hit and run operations on Russian army positions in the capital, Grozny. Tass said Russian troops were conducting an operation yesterday to drive rebels from the Staropromyslov district of Grozny.
The level of violence highlighted the problems facing Russian troops in Chechnya despite tighter security before Mr Yeltsin's planned visit. Mr Yeltsin has said he will visit Chechnya later this month to try to press a peace deal to end the fighting. Clearly hoping a morale boosting trip to Russian troops in the region will help his campaign for re election in the June 16th poll, he suggested his security advisers were against the potentially hazardous trip.
Mr Yeltsin says progress in ending the conflict is vital to his campaign. It could also help him gain the support of the liberal camp in his effort to stop the challenge from his Communist rival, Mr Gennady Zyuganov.
Meanwhile, Mr Yeltsin yesterday appealed to the media to unite behind him against the chance of a Communist comeback.
"I count very much on you, on your professionalism, your objectivity, your passion. We must not return to the past. . We must be together, understand each other," the president told journalists at an award ceremony at Russian State Television (RTR).
On Sunday, the VTsIOM research group, the RAMIR agency and the Public Opinion Foundation - three of the leading polling groups - all gave Mr Yeltsin leads over Mr Zyuganov ranging from 0.5 percentage points to four percentage points. But the margin for error for at least two of the polls was four percentage points either way, meaning Mr Zyuganov could easily tip the scales in any of them.
However, a poll last Wednesday by the Institute of the Sociology of Parliamentarism predicted Mr Zyuganov would win 43-45 per cent of the votes and Mr Yeltsin 25 per cent.