An Unprecedented Play For Power Alexander Lebed Brings Russian Politics Out Of The Shadows

Until Alexander Lebed burst onto the Russian political stage with a strong showing in the presidential election two months ago, Kremlin intrigues were played out in the shadows - heard and hinted at but rarely seen.

But Lebed, who stunned Russians Friday by delivering an extraordinarily personal and public denunciation of one of the main prosecutors of Moscow’s disastrous war in Chechnya, has dragged Russian politics out of the shadows and onto the television screen.

In the process, the army general turned politician has raised the question of who chooses the Russian government’s ministers these days: an aging, ailing and isolated President Boris Yeltsin or Lebed, the charismatic, telegenic secretary of his national security council.

In a blockbuster news conference, Lebed, 46, placed blame for the war squarely on Gen. Anatoly Kulikov, the hawkish Russian minister of internal affairs, and demanded his resignation. With the cameras rolling, Lebed addressed Yeltsin by name and told him that “either Lebed or Kulikov” must go.

Kulikov is indeed the last of a group of Kremlin hard-liners known collectively as “the party of war” to be directly involved in the Chechen conflict. His Internal Affairs Ministry forces, not the Russian army, have done much of the fighting in Chechnya in the last year.

It was Kulikov’s troops who were responsible for some for the war’s worst bloodbaths, including the April 1995 massacre of some 150 civilians in the Chechen town of Samashki and a pair of bungled hostage crises in June 1995 and January of this year. Rather than taking responsibility for those tragedies, Kulikov has stonewalled.

But Russian politicians are almost never asked to account for their actions. And by publicly demanding Kulikov’s head, Lebed is shattering a host of unwritten Kremlin rules.

For one thing, Lebed may be perceived as trying to bully Yeltsin, a president who despite his many flaws is hardly accustomed to being pushed around by his advisers.

It was at least the fourth time in eight weeks that Lebed, who as a general commanded paratroopers in Afghanistan, has all but demanded that the president do his bidding.

The first time was just after Lebed’s surprisingly strong third-place finish in round one of the presidential race in June. Lebed told Yeltsin he would join the government and support him in the runoff election - but only if he fired the defense minister, Gen. Pavel Grachev, Lebed’s archenemy. Yeltsin complied, dumping the loyal Grachev the very next day.

Almost immediately, Lebed publicly named his own favorite candidate to replace Grachev: Gen. Igor Rodionov. Three weeks ago, Yeltsin obliged him.

Then, on being named last weekend as Yeltsin’s envoy for Chechnya, Lebed used a news conference to demand sweeping new powers that he said would enable him to bring the war to an end. On Wednesday, barely 48 hours after Lebed issued his demand, Yeltsin signed a decree over the objections of some of his closest aides.

Until now, it has been possible to explain Lebed’s various successes by his special status in Russian politics. He did, after all, win 11 million votes in the presidential elections, nearly 15 percent of the total. Yet by demanding the head of Kulikov - and doing it in full view of the raucous Russian media - Lebed is taking an extraordinary political gamble, one that goes well beyond his previous power plays.

He is betting that Yeltsin is so beholden to him - or so desperate for a settlement in Chechnya - that he is willing to sacrifice a powerful and loyal lieutenant - one who was reappointed to his Cabinet position only Thursday.