Russian Flag Flies Over Grozny Moscow Claims Presidential Palace; Chechen Rebels Vow To Keep Fighting

Chechnya’s presidential palace, symbol and nerve center of the tiny Muslim republic’s secessionist rebellion against Moscow, fell to overwhelming Russian firepower Thursday after a 20-day siege.

Chechen fighters abandoned the charred, smoking 10-story building after bombs smashed into their basement bunker Wednesday night. Between midnight and 3 a.m., they said they removed their dead, their wounded and about 200 Russian prisoners to a new command center in this capital.

Russian soldiers moved in later and by afternoon had hoisted their flag. President Boris Yeltsin, who provoked a political crisis in Moscow by launching thousands of troops into this unpopular and costly war on Dec. 11, declared the military campaign “effectively over.”

But Chechnya’s defense minister, Col. Aslan Maskhayev, said the battle for Grozny was continuing. “I can’t see any difference between yesterday and today,” he told reporters Thursday night. “Our headquarters is set up and the fighters are in their new positions. We’re ready to carry on with our fight for freedom.”

The fall of the palace, which struck other Chechens as a demoralizing blow, opens a new, uncertain phase of the conflict.

It forces the rebels to choose between fighting for Grozny block by block or retreating to the surrounding countryside and Caucasus Mountains to defend their home villages.

In either case, the Russians can react with the same long-distance bombing and artillery fire that destroyed the palace or pursue the rebels with their so-far reluctant ground forces.

They may have to do without the army. Yeltsin said Interior Ministry troops would be left with “the subsequent mission to restore law, order and civil rights” in the unruly republic 1,000 miles south of Moscow.

And the Kremlin’s claim of victory could stiffen already strong resistance among Russian soldiers here to the prolonged guerrilla conflict that may now develop. A marine officer interviewed in Chechnya for Russian television Thursday said: “We don’t feel very cozy here. Some of us are frightened, but we are going to hold on. We are waiting for our leaders to pull us out. Being here is not right.”