MOSCOW, Jan 4 (AFP) - Vladimir Putin prepared Tuesday for a snap election amid new unverifiable claims and counter-claims in Chechnya, a war experts call a ploy to keep Boris Yeltsin's anointed successor in the Kremlin.

The Kremlin said Putin was doing his job as acting president, speaking for example by telephone with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. They talked about bilateral relations and a summit later this month, one agency report said.

But Putin's hour-by-hour schedule aside, talk in political circles was about the upcoming elections and, specifically, how best the Kremlin can spin the Chechnya war to ensure maximum voter backing for the wildly-popular Putin.

"The Russian plan is to win in Chechnya as quickly as possible," explained noted independent Russian defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

"This victory will not happen in reality ... specialists know that this kind of war is not possible to win," he said. "But victory is what the television says it is, and this war was designed to make Putin president."

His remarks reflected a conviction gaining credence here that the conflict was choreographed purely to rally public support behind a presidential candidate, a scenario dramatized in the 1999 US film "Wag The Dog."

When it launched its offensive on Chechnya four months ago, Russia said it was a response to Chechnya-based terrorism, notably bomb attacks on apartment buildings here and in other cities that killed nearly 300 people.

No one has claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Since then, and due largely to uniformly pro-war coverage by Russian media, the conflict has successfully been transformed into a nationalist-patriotic "win at any cost" crusade in the Russian public psyche, analysts said.

"After Putin becomes president, everyone will forget about Chechnya," Felgenhauer predicted. "I think it will be presented as over and successful in one month from now."

The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, meets Wednesday to set a date for early presidential elections, and analysts predicted Putin will declare a Chechnya victory before that vote happens.

With his popularity at record high levels for a Russian politician, Putin stands to gain little from a protracted election campaign and will also push for a plebiscite as soon as possible, they said.

"Putin understands perfectly that elections need to be held as quickly as possible," said Andrei Piontkovsky, director of the Moscow-based Center for Strategic Studies.

"Comments by the president of the Constitutional Court reflect the horse-trading that is currently taking place" on the timing of the elections, he said.

Under the Russian constitution, presidential elections must be held not later more three months after an outgoing president quits -- in this case by March 31. But they can also legally be called any time within that period.

But if Putin's electoral chances can only rise the sooner a vote is held, he must also calculate the price to pay if domestic political rivals feel they have been robbed of a chance to air their views adequately in a campaign.

"The law says that candidates must declare they are running, and submit a half-million (petition) signatures, at least two months ahead of the elections," Piontkovsky said.

"March 26 was a realistic date" for Putin rivals, but holding a vote much before then "presents difficulties" for other candidates, he added.

Felgenhauer, Piontkovsky and other political and military experts said the Russian high command is well aware of the difficulties in achieving a genuine and comprehensive military victory in Chechnya.

But both said the "real" problems there would start for Russia only after the war is officially declared over and Putin has been elected.

Then Russian troop numbers will be reduced and their forces therefore more vulnerable to hit-and-run guerrilla attacks that will prove costly in lives, they said.