THE CAMPAIGN for the Russian presidency has been a bizarre one so far. On Saturday, President Yeltsin told his supporters' he had sent a telegram to the Chechen rebel leader, Gen Dzhokhar Dudayev, to inform him Russian forces had ceased military actions - but the war continued.
Earlier, the ultra right candidate, Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, submitted more than the required one million signatures to register as a candidate.
The boxes containing the signatures were delivered in an armoured car - complete with machine guns and anti aircraft cannon. Mr Zhirinovsky told reporters he was taking no chances.
So far, the other candidates who have submitted signatures are: Mr Yeltsin; Mr Zyuganov; the liberal candidate, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky; and the former Soviet President, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev.
But Mr Yeltsin had no thanks even for his loyal supporters. Launching his campaign at the former Comecon headquarters in Moscow, he said he had personally taken over the running of his election campaign because of the inefficiency of those who had been in charge of it.
I have now taken the leadership upon myself. Now I am the leader of the whole campaign of the presidential candidate Yeltsin BN," he told his audience but the applause was less than rapturous.
He then said he had sent telegrams to Gen Dudayev and the pro Moscow Chechen leader, Mr Doku Zavgayev, to tell them that hostilities had ended.
But the independent Russian news agency, Interfax, quoted a Russian military source as saying that hostilities had intensified because Bosnian muslims had arrived to support their colleagues.
On the streets of Moscow, all was calm in the glorious spring weather. People carried bundles of pussy willows in preparation for the Orthodox Palm Sunday as the city's tiny Catholic population gathered at the church of St Louis des Francais for Easter services.
There were two political rallies at the weekend. On Saturday, three presidential candidates, Mr Yavlinsky, Mr Gorbachev and Gen Alexander Lebed, drew a crowd of about 3,000 on Pushkin Square for an anti war rally.
Yesterday, at the same venue, Mr Yeltsin's supporters managed a crowd of about 100 people - not all of whom were supportive.
The speakers voiced were drowned out by a group of Moscow babushki chanting the words: Sovietski Soyuz (Soviet Union)".
The weather apart, it was a normal Moscow weekend.
