Word: yeltsin
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...group of elite officers at the Russian Ministry of Defense had cooked up a plan out of profound frustration. According to one colonel, they first intended to intercept President Boris Yeltsin's motorcade as it traveled to the Kremlin along Znamenka Street, where their headquarters is located. Then, with Yeltsin trapped, they would demand their salaries, which had not been paid for several months, and tell him "to his face what we think about how he has destroyed the armed forces," as the colonel...
...officers never carried out the plot, believing Yeltsin's bodyguards would mow them down even before they could get close. But their attitude reflects the disaffection that top- and middle-level officers harbor toward the President. Many of them were once among his strongest backers, but the disastrous war in Chechnya, the general poverty of the officer corps, the delays in salary payments and an overall sense that Russia has been humbled have created powerful anti-Yeltsin sentiments. "Six years ago, I was ready to genuflect before Yeltsin," said the colonel. "Now I would just love to lock...
...first round of Russia's presidential election approaches on June 16, the question of the military's feelings toward Yeltsin becomes more important. With 4 million soldiers, members of paramilitary units and border guards, the armed forces are a sizable bloc of votes. Even more significant, the troops' loyalty may be crucial to Yeltsin after the election is over. "The possibility that Yeltsin might need the army to stay in power is very high," says a senior Russian defense analyst. During the failed hard-line coups of 1991 and '93, the army's stand was crucial...
Today the military is far weaker and more fragmented than it was back then. Like the country, it is divided over which candidate to back, and some U.S. officials argue that it is too demoralized and underequipped to intervene politically. Still, Yeltsin needs all the votes he can get, so his low standing with soldiers is a worry, and among Russian officials there is real concern that force will come into play after the election. Yeltsin needs to win the military back to his side, or at least neutralize its dislike...
...that? He has tried to pay off some of those back salaries, and last week he decreed that only volunteers will be sent to Chechnya, but now he is contemplating another radical move: firing Pavel Grachev, the Minister of Defense who has stood by Yeltsin since the coup in 1991. Fragmented as it is, the military still respects the chain of command, so Yeltsin needs a popular and loyal Defense Minister to keep the top officers in line. Grachev, one of the main culprits of the Chechen misadventure, is highly unpopular, and now his loyalty is in doubt as well...