RUSSIA SIGNS TREATY TO END CHECHEN WAR.

Byline: Michael Specter The New York Times

After 18 months of a war that has left Chechnya in ruins and imperiled the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, leaders of both sides signed a treaty at the Kremlin on Monday intended to end the fighting in the secessionist region in southern Russia on Saturday.

Yeltsin has said many times that he would never negotiate directly with the separatists. But clearly believing that he cannot win the presidential election next month without making a dramatic new gesture of peace, he decided last week to invite the Chechen leader, Zelimkhan Yanderbiyev, to Moscow.

On Monday, wearing his customary camouflage outfit and traditional lamb's-wool hat, Yanderbiyev appeared in the capital of the country he has always described as his greatest enemy.

Saying he was weary of a war that has devastated his land and killed as many as 40,000 of his people, the Chechen leader seemed willing to skip over almost every painful detail that caused the fighting in the first place.

``We have resolved the key problems of peace in Chechnya,'' Yeltsin said after his prime minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin, signed the peace agreement with Yanderbiyev. ``This is a historic day, a historic moment.''

It is difficult to imagine Yeltsin sitting down in the Kremlin and discussing anything with the previous leader of the Chechen separatists, Dzhokhar Dudayev. But Dudayev died in a Russian rocket attack last month, three weeks after Yeltsin announced a unilateral cease-fire that never took effect.

Yanderbiyev, apparently seeing an opening caused by Yeltsin's perceived need to end the war before the election on June 16, has been far less dogmatic than his predecessor.

``We will propose to Russia an option for negotiations,'' the rebel leader said Monday, ``that will allow the war to stop and the great power to save face.''

No treaty has been signed at this level between the two sides before. A partial accord signed in July proved ineffective. Monday's agreement is likely to buy Yeltsin some vital time - and the support of moderates - that he so desperately needs if he is to defeat his Communist challenger, Gennadi Zyuganov.

Yet it is hard to see how this treaty will produce a lasting peace in a region that has struggled with Russia for independence for nearly three centuries.

None of the ``key problems of peace'' that Yeltsin referred to have been addressed, let alone resolved. Chechnya's bid for independence, the reason the war began in December 1994, was not discussed Monday. And there is still no timetable for the withdrawal of tens of thousands of Russian troops who remain in the region.

There has been no consideration of the future role of the rival Chechen leadership installed by Moscow. Its members are hated and treated as traitors by the separatists.

It is not clear that all of Yanderbiyev's field commanders, who are notoriously assertive and independent, will follow his orders. Nor is it clear that Yeltsin will be able to force his army to do what he tells it. When he announced that Russia would stop fighting two months ago, his orders were ignored.

``I am sure that the authority and political will of the Russian president will make the goal of peace attainable,'' the Russian defense minister, Gen. Pavel Grachev, said Monday. But on Sunday, Grachev - who many people expect to lose his job before the election - said peace talks would be of no use.

Despite all the possibilities for failure, the treaty can only help Yeltsin in the coming election. Opinion polls and presidential advisers constantly tell him that he must do something concrete to end the fighting in Chechnya.

Yeltsin on Monday did that, and at the same time he has fulfilled the most important condition that most liberals have set for supporting him. More than anything else, the brutal war has soured many of Yeltsin's most liberal supporters.

Yeltsin has shown himself willing to bend, but only so far. ``Chechnya must be a part of Russia,'' he said while campaigning this weekend. ``But within that context we can discuss any kind of autonomy.''

Even his Communist opponents were unable to criticize Yeltsin very harshly on Monday.

``This is a happy event for all citizens of Russia, including residents of Chechnya,'' said Valentin Kuptsov, the No. 2 official in the Communist Party. Kuptsov also said it was an agreement ``that could have been achieved long ago.''

This agreement puts the Communists in a difficult position. They like to portray Yeltsin as a has-been who cannot control his government and who is unwilling to take power into his own hands. Zyuganov and Yeltsin need to attract undecided voters, and if Yeltsin can seem effective and successful, he is far more likely to gain their support.

The document signed Monday could not be simpler. All hostilities are to end by midnight Friday. All hostages are to be released. Negotiations on all other matters will continue.

The last provision will permit bigger issues under discussion in negotiations last year - like independence - to be revisited later when the pressure of an election has eased. Discussions will continue Tuesday and possibly Wednesday, the Kremlin announced Monday night.

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PHOTO Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yanderbiyev, right, me ets with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, left.

Associated Press