The struggle between the security services has a number of arenas -- political, social and criminal. Chechnya, which has become one of the main arenas, constitutes an outstanding example of the chaos in which all this may result. Without a doubt the counterterrorist operation in Chechnya would have met with greater success if the services were not so busy undermining their colleagues from competing services. The latest example of this is the spate of bombing attacks on the Chechen MVD. Chechens regard these attacks as being orchestrated by the military to discredit the MVD. Putin has charged the pro-Russian administrator, Akhmad Kadyrov, with building an MVD force that would be the main guarantor of stability in the republic. The majority of military units could then be pulled back from the villages and into the barracks. The Chechen MVD must prove itself capable of maintaining order, but in that case the military would lose the leadership and initiative in Chechnya. The military seems committed to sabotaging such plans.

Similarly, tragically high losses of life of Russian military personnel can be manipulated to corporate ends. For instance, as a result of a stunningly well-planned action by Chechen combatants, an MI-26 helicopter was shot down 100 meters from the main military base at Khankala, killing 127 servicemen and wounding 22. That event prompted Sergei Ivanov to order eight generals to be investigated and immediately to remove Col.- Gen. Vitaly Pavlov, the commander of the Air Force.

The main difficulty with the efforts to reform the "power ministries" is that the members of the presidential entourage, the interest groups around Putin, are pathologically suspicious and contemptuous of one another. The chaos created by the security services and their political and financial patrons is an even more serious problem for Russia than are the consequences of the war in Chechnya. To end the Chechen war before the start of his second presidential term, Putin would have to eradicate these practices. On a larger scale, the success of Putin's economic and social measures, which have been the hallmark of his presidency, also depend on his ability to carry through a decisive reform of the security services.