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Date sent: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 18:14:53 -0400
Subject: RRR-Internet Edition (27 August 1998)
IEWS Russian Regional Report
**Internet Edition**
Vol. 3, No. 34, 27 August 1998
LEBED'S BROTHER PUBLICLY DEFIES YELTSIN, LAUNCHES TAX MUTINY. On 26
August, Khakassiya Prime Minister Aleksei Lebed said: "As a [retired]
paratrooper officer, I address to you, President Boris Yeltsin, as the
greatest commander-in-chief. Your talent for command has surpassed
that of Genghis Khan, Batiy Khan and Hitler, and in terms of your
capacity for bringing ruin to [the country], you have left them all
behind? As the head of Khakassiya's government, I officially declare
that the republic will cease transferring funds to the federal
budget." The audience warmly responded and applauded. The local
television station described the statement as "patriotic."
Such a mocking official statement could hardly have been made
without
the knowledge and approval of Aleksei Lebed's brother, Kransnoyarsk
Krai Governor Aleksandr Lebed. The statement almost certainly marks
the beginning of a regional mutiny against the federal government and
the president, likely backed by Aleksandr Lebed and Boris Berezovskii.
A similar tax mutiny launched last spring by Irkutsk Governor
Yurii
Nozhikov failed because the federal government was relatively strong,
but given the current power vacuum in Moscow, the strategy may be more
effective now (see IEWS Russian Regional Report, 24 April 1997). -
Pavel
