Lebed Begins Succession Battle

Lebeds dismissal as secretary of Yeltsins Security Council ends a four-month marriage of convenience between the general and the ailing President, who said he had got fed up with Lebeds argumentative character and presidential ambitions.

The Kremlin newspaper Rossiskiye Vesti greeted the sacking, announced by Yeltsin on television on Thursday, with a gleeful pun on Lebeds name, which means swan.

The swan has flown away, it said in a banner headline.

But other commentators were not so convinced that Lebeds departure would end either the generals career or Russias problems, which include mass delays in wage payments, a shaky peace in Chechnya and a president laid low with heart problems. The swan flew away yesterday. Where will Russia fly tomorrow? said Komsomolskaya Pravda.

 

Lebed, who has denied charges by interior minister Anatoly Kulikov that he was preparing a creeping coup, warned that Russia was in for a hot autumn, citing discontent in the crumbling army and the future of the Chechnya peace process he sponsored.

Whatever your attitude to Alexander Lebed his sacking will lower tension in Moscow. The question is what might happen in Chechnya as a result? said the liberal opposition daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Rebel leaders in Chechnya, who view the August peace deal as a victory in their 21-month battle with Russia, announced plans on Friday to hold elections in the region on January 27