27.06.1996

Coups and rumours of coups

Once upon a time, when the Soviet Union still existed, a breed known as ‘Sovietologists’ would sit glued to their TV sets. When an ageing Soviet leader made a public appearance, the Sovietologists would look at him and try to guess his state of health as a clue to what was going on at the top in the USSR. So, when Yuri Andropov was perceived to be holding his arm rather stiffly back in 1983, this was thought to be a sign that he was undergoing kidney dialysis. And in those days, Pravda was gone over with a fine-tooth comb to pick up the merest hints about changes in Soviet policy. The reason for this was that the USSR media and political system were both rather mysterious and did not give a lot away.

In 1996, Russia is a ‘democracy’ in the bourgeois sense. It has far more diverse media outlets - no single newspaper holds the key to what is going on, and the media are by no means all pro-Yeltsin or pro-‘communist’, though bias still exists. Yet the mystery is still there.

An alleged coup last week is a case in point. The catalyst for it all is General Aleksandr Lebed. The man came third in the presidential elections and is now the power-broker in Russia, since he can attempt to throw the votes he gained in the first round to either President Yeltsin or the Communist Party of the Russian Federation challenger, Gennady Zyuganov. Lebed was appointed secretary of the Russian Security Council with a mandate to fight crime. He is also an enemy of Russian defence minister Pavel Grachev, and Grachev is widely blamed for the war in Chechnya. Lebed said a group of generals were trying to put pressure on Yeltsin to stop him from firing Grachev. Lebed, according to his own account, took this to be a potential coup and dashed around military units in the Moscow area to make sure nothing happened. The sacking of Grachev went ahead as planned, though Lebed acted as if he himself, rather than Yeltsin, was responsible for it.

Then two senior campaign workers for Yeltsin were arrested by the security police, allegedly for carrying foreign currency without authorisation. Yeltsin’s campaign manager Anatoly Chubais said this was part of an attempt to cancel the second round of the election, and then a real bureaucratic rolling of heads started, with Yeltsin security aide Aleksandr Korzhakov, security police chief Mikhail Barsukov and first deputy premier Oleg Soskovets all biting the dust. Finally, on June 25, seven generals were sacked.

Was there a coup attempt? The notion is widely ridiculed. A Moscow radio commentator declared in notably ironic style that the coup allegations were “twaddle”. Pravda, which supports Zyuganov, said on June 22 that the turmoil looked like a dispute within two wings of the Yeltsin entourage and warned its readers against renewed “anti-communist hysteria”. Probably Yeltsin is hoping that a bit of tension in society will help him in the election, but the settling of scores looks unrehearsed. Clearly Russia’s adoption of bourgeois democracy will not save it from the obscure recesses of palace intrigue, or perhaps political soap opera with a potential for bloodshed.

Andrew MacKay