Gen. Pavel Grachev, Fought Chechen Rebels, Dies at 64 MOSCOW (AP) - Gen. Pavel Grachev, a former Russian defense minister who led troops into Chechnya in the 1990s, died here on Sunday. He was 64. He died in a hospital after being admitted on Sept. 12 in serious condition, the Russian government said. No cause of death was given. General Grachev, who had served under President Boris N. Yeltsin from 1992 until 1996, is perhaps best remembered for promising in 1994 to crush Chechen separatist rebels "in a couple of hours with a single regiment of paratroopers." The war instead stretched on for more than two years, with thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians killed, and ended with the Kremlin forced to sign a peace treaty. General Grachev proved his loyalty to Mr. Yeltsin in August 1991 by switching sides during an attempted coup by hard-line Communists that hastened the fall of the Soviet Union and brought Mr. Yeltsin to power. He refused orders to attack Mr. Yeltsin's headquarters and crush pro-democracy demonstrations. General Grachev also supported Mr. Yeltsin in his confrontation with Parliament in 1993, which led to the shelling of the Parliament building. In 1993 General Grachev faced accusations of corruption connected with the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe. The accusations, although never proved in court, earned him the nickname Pasha Mercedes. After Mr. Yeltsin was re-elected in the summer of 1996, he fired General Grachev, who had become unpopular both inside and outside the Russian military. General Grachev was a commander of elite paratroopers from 1981 until 1988 during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.