He Fell, He Picked Himself Up, and Now Off to the Elections!: Whatever May Happen in the Country, Lebed Is Continuing His Electoral Campaign

Abstract

Observers have noted that, at the end of the last year and the beginning of the present one, the figure of Lebed the Elder has been less frequently at the center of the media's attention. People have even begun to talk about an information embargo into which the general has fallen. Lebed's political opponents were interested in only two themes: the sources and nature of the compromising material on Korzhakov and Lebed, and the possible connection between the two Lebeds and the Chernyi brothers. The head of the government of the Republic of Khakassia has acquired control of the Saiano-Gorskii aluminum factory, one of the largest in our industry. There are reasons to believe that the initiative behind the investigation by NTV [Independent Television] of the problems of the aluminum monopoly actually originated with Minister of Internal Affairs Kulikov. Aimed mainly against O[leg] Soskovets and A[leksandr] Korzhakov, this campaign also touched on the interests of the Lebed brothers. The recent sensation, offered to the Russian public by the American press, that Yeltsin had already signed a decree removing Kulikov from his duties as deputy prime minister, as well as minister, has radically changed the situation—if, of course, this is not a newspaper "canard."