Lebed's Backers Ponder Their Choices
By James Rupert
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 20 1996; Page A22
The Washington Post
Tamara Yurishcheva sighed heavily, her eyes welling with tears, as she contemplated what her television had shown her.
To Yurishcheva, President Boris Yeltsin is a failure, corrupted by power and unable to cope with the giant economic, social mess that her country has become. Alexander Lebed "is Russia's last hope," she said today -- a straight, tough, retired general who would never compromise principle or seek gain in political deals.
That's why Yurishcheva, a 50-year-old high school principal, has exhausted herself in recent months running Lebed's presidential election campaign in Tula province. That is also why she was stunned Tuesday to see her political hero step, smiling, to Yeltsin's side as a freshly minted aide of the man he had tried to oust two days earlier.
Here in the city that serves as Lebed's political base, his alliance with Yeltsin has disappointed and confused many of his supporters -- underscoring uncertainty over how many of Lebed's nearly 11 million voters nationwide he will be able to deliver for Yeltsin in a runoff against Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov.
The doubts of Lebed's supporters here also show how fragile his sudden political strength may be. With no political experience and scant organization, Lebed's currency is his image as an independent, honest public servant, above crass political deal-making. But simply by taking a role in turbulent Kremlin politics, which many Russians view with cynicism, Lebed risks staining that image. Many here believe he already is tainted, according to Tula residents interviewed today.
Yurishcheva's school office was littered with papers and files from Lebed's campaign, which she and her colleagues have pursued with nearly religious fervor. "We put our hopes in Yeltsin and in [former prime minister Yegor] Gaidar -- and each time these hopes were lost," said Tatyana Vinokurova, 47, an English teacher at the school.
After such disappointments, Lebed was a godsend, the women said. He quit the army last year under pressure from Yeltsin's government and came to Tula, where he had earlier commanded a garrison of paratroops. Tula, a city of 600,000 about 100 miles south of Moscow, was a major arms-making center during the Soviet era and has seen many of its factories shut down.
With Lebed's powerful personal presence and his history of bluntly opposing entrenched authority, many people hoped he might be able to deliver on his promises to clean up Russia's rampant official corruption and organized crime. Last December, Tula launched his political career, electing him to the Russian legislature. In Sunday's vote, Yeltsin barely bested Lebed in the city -- 32 percent to 31 percent.
Nationwide, Lebed took nearly 15 percent of the presidential vote, suddenly emerging as one of Russia's most powerful men, sought as an ally by both Yeltsin and Zyuganov.
But Lebed joined the Yeltsin camp without consulting his supporters, Yurishcheva said. While a majority of Lebed supporters here are content with the move, many fear he has sold out, she said. "People have been coming in and calling. Some are crying, . . . asking `What do we do now?' He has to explain himself to his voters more precisely."
At the Vlad Auto Parts store on Red Army Prospect, Marina Markina, a young saleswoman, said she had supported Lebed, but "now he has sold himself. We need an independent person, and he's just become one of them." She said she would not bother voting in the runoff, which is likely to be held July 3.
Yurishcheva suggested that Lebed had felt compelled to make early use of the effective political power granted him by Sunday's vote. "He's not the kind of person who can just sit. . . . He felt the need to do something," she said.
Lebed's precise functions as Yeltsin's national security chief remain undefined, but his elevation will inevitably raise fears among powerful factions in the government. For example, Lebed has accused officials close to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin of illegally skimming profits from the national gas company, Gazprom. Yurishcheva argued that Chernomyrdin will try to box Lebed out of real power in the government and that if Lebed is blocked from pursuing his program, he will quickly resign.
In announcing his decision to serve as Yeltsin's national security chief, Lebed said Tuesday that "no fewer than 80 percent of my voters will follow my choice" and vote for Yeltsin in the presidential runoff. Yurishcheva guessed at a lower figure, suggesting that 20 percent of Lebed supporters here will go to Zyuganov -- and that others will abstain.
Despite her own doubts about Lebed's decision, Yurishcheva said she will continue the campaign, by getting Lebed voters out to the polls on Yeltsin's behalf for the runoff. She echoed Lebed's declaration Tuesday that, above all, reforms must continue in Russia and the election of Communists prevented.
At a table covered with files and documents, Yurishcheva mused over a scrap of paper covered with voting statistics from Tula province. "The turnout in the villages was very low," she lamented. "We tried posters and leaflets," but for the runoff, "I think we're going to get a helicopter and loudspeakers" to get voters out, she said.
© Copyright 1996 The Washington Post Company
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