Word: coups
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Hardly anyone in the Yeltsin administration, including those close to the top, seems to believe that Lebed was really planning a coup. The Kremlin's willingness to tolerate Lebed's constant criticism, however, has provided a subtle barometer of the Yeltsin administration's own confidence. In the past few weeks this appears to have declined sharply. Lebed, the most popular politician in the country at large, has never had many admirers in the government. Until now, however, the predominant view among people like presidential chief of staff Anatoli Chubais has been that Lebed should be kept inside the tent, where...
...largely reduced to symbolic 60-sec. taped appearances on the evening news--sat quietly by, occasionally expressing incongruously mild disapproval. All this came to an end in the middle of last week. Interior Minister Anatoli Kulikov, Lebed's open and bitter enemy, declared that Lebed was planning a coup, that he wanted to place most of the country's intelligence and military machine under his control and had proposed the creation of a 50,000-strong Russian Legion--ostensibly to fight crime, but in fact, Kulikov said, to be used in a power grab...
Some Russian observers noted that the main piece of evidence Kulikov produced regarding a possible coup was a document dating back to late August, which he admitted having in his possession since about that time. No matter; the normally sluggish government suddenly moved fast. Within 24 hours of Kulikov's going public with his allegations, Lebed was out. The announcement was made on TV by Yeltsin himself. The sadly feeble-looking President at times stared blankly at the wrong TV camera and seemed to take forever to place his signature on the decree dismissing Lebed. He made no reference...
...what he perceived as the "Gestapoesque" tactics used in the Peninsula article. As evidence, Kaufman cited the self-proclaimed purpose of Griffith's piece that was "in keeping with the time honored practice of making a list and checking it twice in order to ensure that when the coup comes around the firing squad knows who's been naughty or nice." Griffith followed that statement with a list of campus organizations and individuals that he apparently wanted shot...
...last honest man in the Yeltsin administration, a result which is probably a calculated risk on the Kremlin's part. After a series of confrontations with former ally Defense Minister Igor Rodionov, and Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov which sent charges of contract murder, treason, corruption spying and coup plotting (which no one seems to believe) flying through the press, Yeltsin seems to have decided that Lebed was better off out of his government. He may come to regret it. If Yeltsin's worsening health brings about new presidential elections before the government can cope with massive public resentment over months...