It was typical that, within days of President Vladimir Putin's announcement last week that a large portion of Russian troops in Chechnya would start withdrawing, a top general flatly contradicted him. For the Russians are not just hideously bogged down there militarily, with little prospect of an early peaceful settlement; their entire strategy, civil and diplomatic included, is a mess. No sooner has one plan been proclaimed than another seems to take its place. Though Mr Putin last morith tapped his old friend Nikolai Patrushev, head of the fsb, as the home-based part of the old kgb is now known, to take overall charge of Chechnya, the administration of the rebel republic is still a muddle. Russian politicians have complained bitterly that, with some nine central ministries and agencies involved, nobody knows who is responsible for what.
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