The General Against the Kremlin: Alexander Lebed. Power and Illusion

The author of this study shows how, with Boris Yeltsin struggling to maintain his health, the Kremlin elite are plotting his successor while the most popular man in Russian politics is outside the Kremlin. He is General Alexander Lebed, the gruff Cossack whom Yeltsin first appointed and then removed as Russia's defence and security supremo. A hero of the Afghan war and the man who brought peace to Chechnya, he was ignominiously sacked by Yeltsin in 1996 after a bitter power struggle in the Kremlin. But he is still the man most Russians would like to be President. He is also a politician whose unpredictable views on Russia's policy towards its neighbours and NATO expansion have worried western security analysts. Harold Elletson, a former Member of Parliament, had access to General Lebed and his team, to the Chechen rebels with whom Lebed negotiated a ceasefire, and to Russian political sources. His text aims to provide a detailed insight into the methods and motives of a man who could become President of Russia, and into those who oppose him.