Word: yeltsin
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...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 to the mutiny allegations. Instead he complained that Lebed was not a team player and referred angrily...
...Yeltsin and those around him had their reasons for giving Lebed the ax, the general had his own for getting it, and he attempted to provoke Yeltsin into ousting him on at least three occasions recently. Each time Yeltsin, whose canny political instincts are undiminished by physical ill-health, chose to ignore him. Yeltsin did not want to make a martyr. The President's career had, after all, been made when he was dismissed from the Soviet communist leadership. Lebed has been feeling thwarted ever since going into the government in June, in what was seen at the time...
...dismissal also sheds a revealing light on the deep anxiety that lies behind the bland confidence the Kremlin likes to exude. The President's entourage are much more worried about Yeltsin's health--and the possibility of abrupt incapacitation--than they will admit publicly. And if the government falls even farther behind this fall and winter with its payroll, aides are concerned about public uprisings. Their nightmare is that both events will happen simultaneously. Speaking to TIME, a Kremlin adviser described the scenario they sought to pre-empt by firing Lebed: unrest breaks out, Yeltsin's failing health disables...
...Lebed's departure with satisfaction are worried about Chechnya. "I don't know if Kulikov has the brains to avoid a renewal of fighting in Chechnya," said the Kremlin adviser. "But the President has to put all his energies into avoiding a further outbreak of fighting." Still, on Saturday, Yeltsin replaced Lebed as chief negotiator in Chechnya with veteran politician Ivan Rybkin, who was also named the new national security adviser. Rybkin has never held a senior military post...
Watching events from Washington, the Clinton Administration expressed surprise only at the timing. They, like many of their Russian counterparts, had viewed Lebed's ouster as only a matter of time: his ambition was too big to coexist with Yeltsin's, they thought. And Yeltsin, the officials added, was not one to tolerate a rival center of power in his administration. U.S. intelligence analysts, however, found no credible evidence that Lebed had been trying to incite a mutiny. And they, like the Russian media, noted that the increased security measures announced by Kulikov after his public allegations against Lebed never...