How Long Will This One Last?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Sept 6, 1999 | by Jamie Dettmer

Five prime ministers in 17 months -- it makes Italy's postwar habit of swapping governments appear like stability. How long former KGB officer Vladimir Putin lasts as Boris Yeltsin's latest prime minister is anyone's guess, but he certainly has his work cut out for him.

His first challenge? Violent unrest again in the Caucasus and the prospect of Russia losing control of the strife-tom republic of Dagestan, where Muslim rebels, apparently with the aid of neighboring Chechnya, are seeking to grab the mountainous territory from Moscow. At his final cabinet meeting, outgoing prime minister Sergei Stepashin warned his colleagues: "I think we could really lose Dagestan."

The stage is being set for another Chechnya, which broke away from Russia after a two-year war that left tens of thousands of Russians and Chechens dead and cast a pall over Yeltsin's presidency. Stepashin was a hawk during the 1994-96 Chechen war and so, too, Putin. The new prime minister already has vowed to fight for Dagestan. Here we go again.