The officers running Russia's ruthless campaign in the north Caucasus were yesterday feted as national war heroes, as President Boris Yeltsin and his prime minister, Mr Vladimir Putin, sought to maximise their political dividends from the popular Chechen war.
Mr Yeltsin termed the three-month campaign "faultless", as the Russian army claimed to have advanced to within a mile of the centre of Grozny, the Chechen capital.
Slurring his words and appearing occasionally bemused during a ceremony at the Kremlin, Mr Yeltsin conferred "Hero of Russia" awards on the three generals commanding the Chechen campaign and on the head of army intelligence.
Mr Putin has shown little inclination to initiate any other policies than war since he became prime minister in August. "Without combating terrorism, we can't realise a single, socio-economic goal," he said yesterday.
Mr Yeltsin said the previous disastrous Chechen war of 199496 had featured "little mistakes which led to big mistakes".
"There is nothing of the sort now," he said. "The army's conduct has been faultless this time."
But behind yesterday's self-congratulatory, if defensive, speeches there appeared to be an argument about who was running the war in Chechnya, about alleged atrocities, and about whether some of the officers decorated yesterday were beyond political control.
One of the military leaders hailed as a hero was Maj. Gen. Vladimir Shamanov (42), a controversial figure who in recent days had been rumoured to have been sacked.
Gen. Shamanov has also severely upset Moscow politicians with his outspoken comments, suggesting that the army would defy its political superiors.
The Russian media regularly cites Gen. Shamanov's outspokenness to warn of the risk of "Bonapartism" among the officer corps.
Yesterday's awards ceremony provided Mr Yeltsin with the opportunity to reassert his authority. He stressed that the generals were "strictly following orders from the president and the government".
Mr Yeltsin's reassertion of the government's authority was also widely seen as yet another boost to the growing authority of Mr Putin. While Mr Sergeyev said the four-day Russian onslaught on Grozny had achieved an unspecified breakthrough yesterday, another of the military's key figures, Gen. Valery Manilov, the deputy chief of the general staff, said the Russian forces were closing in on the city centre.
He said Grozny would fall to the Russians within days.
"We tentatively plan to reach some key targets by the new year, including the liquidation of the main terrorist armed groups . . .", he said.
An angry mob attacked five drunken Russian soldiers yesterday after their army truck crushed two young sisters to death near the border with Chechnya, police said.