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Russian Gov. Alexander Lebed Dies April 28, 2002 By JUDITH INGRAM MOSCOW (AP) - Alexander Lebed, the tough-talking former general who emerged as a strong challenger to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and was credited with ending Moscow's 1994-96 war in Chechnya, was killed Sunday in a helicopter crash. Lebed, 52, was governor of the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia, and was considered a key regional leader. But his popularity went far beyond military and regional circles. There were 19 people, including a three-member crew, aboard the helicopter when it crashed, the Emergency Situations Ministry in Moscow said. Seven, including Lebed, died, and 12 were hospitalized in critical condition, the ministry duty officer said. Lebed was born in the blue-collar, southern city of Novocherkassk on April 20, 1950. In 1962, he saw troops shoot striking laborers there. His father had been incarcerated in Josef Stalin's prison camps for being late for work and later fought in a punishment battalion during World War II. Lebed entered a paratroopers' academy in 1969, and after graduation he rose swiftly through the military. He was a battalion commander in 1981-82 during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, where he won a top medal. In 1988, he was put in command of the elite Tula paratroop division. In 1990, he reached the rank of major-general. During the August 1991 hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, coup leaders ordered Lebed's troops to surround Yeltsin's Moscow stronghold. But Lebed refused to send in his forces. Praised by reformers when the coup collapsed, Lebed quickly disappointed his admirers, saying he ``could not care less for democracy,'' but also could not bring himself to kill Russians. In 1992, Lebed was sent to command Russian troops in Moldova's breakaway region of Trans-Dniester, the scene of ethnic conflict between the Moldovan government and mainly Slav separatists. He was widely praised for ending the bloodshed and became the darling of hard-liners and the embittered, cash-strapped army. In 1995, after a dispute with the defense minister, Lebed was forced to retire from the military after 25 years of service. He turned to politics full-time, being elected a member of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, in December 1995. Riding a wave of popular discontent, he came in third in the 1996 presidential elections, pulling in 15 percent of the vote. Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov came in second, and Yeltsin, though ailing, won the election. Yeltsin made Lebed head of his presidential security council, and during his four-month term there before the president sacked him, Lebed brokered an end to Russia's war with separatist Chechnya. He later used his contacts and experience in that peacemaking effort, founding a non-governmental organization called the Peacekeeping Mission in the North Caucasus. The mission is credited with negotiating freedom for scores of soldiers and others taken hostage in the volatile region. In May 1998, Lebed won election as governor of Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region, a region four times the size of France. Many saw the post as a possible springboard for the 2000 presidential campaign, but Lebed declined to run. Lebed is survived by his wife Inna and three children, Alexander, Yekaterina and Ivan, as well as five grandchildren. --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
