RUSSIAN LAWMAKER SAYS ARMY IS FALLING APART IN CHECHNYA

MOSCOW - In rare criticism within Russia of President Vladimir Putin's
policies in Chechnya, a leading liberal politician yesterday said
Russia's army in the region is falling apart as a fighting force, and
is afflicted by alcoholism and drug addiction.

Boris Nemtsov, head of the Union of Right Forces faction in
parliament, said Russia should end the war by opening negotiations
with Chechen guerrilla leaders.

The comments came after Nemtsov met with a rebel envoy in the southern
Russian city of Nazran on Saturday in what some saw as a back door
contact for Russia's government with the rebel forces.

Nemtsov said he later met with Putin and the Russian president
approved his efforts to engage the rebels in dialogue.

Nemtsov's claim contradicted a television interview with Putin this
week in which the Russian leader asserted that the war will go on
until all militants in Chechnya are killed or surrender. He did not
mention any problems in Russia's forces.

But Nemtsov said the army in Chechnya is deteriorating.

"When troops stand still, they are getting increasingly demoralized,"
he said. "They are plagued by alcoholism, drug-addiction, prostitution
and looting."

Military prosecutors have opened 748 cases involving crimes committed
by servicemen in Chechnya and neighboring Caucasus regions since
fighting began in August 1999, Russian news agencies reported the
Kremlin's spokesman for Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, as saying yesterday.

The crimes include murder and illegal arms dealing, the reports
said.

Foreign governments and human rights groups have said Russia's ground
troops are too blunt an instrument to solve Chechnya's complex problems.

But few Russian politicians have criticized the war, which remains
popular with most Russians despite mounting casualties.