GENNADY ZYUGANOV DOES NOT BECOME PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA, July 3, 1996

BORIS YELTSIN

WINS

RE-ELECTION

July 3, 1996

GENNADY ZYUGANOV

at the time of the 1996 Russian presidential election

It has been fifteen years since July 3, 1996, when the head of the Russian Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, forced the incumbent Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, into a run-off, and Yeltsin won.

Back in February of that year Zyuganov had looked like the Darling of Davos. Yeltsin was third in the polls, trailing even Grigory Yavlinsky, the perennial liberal loner. Tycoons and media alike attending the World Economic Forum in Davos competed for the attention of the Communist leader, who seemed on track to become the next president of Russia, and the first Communist Party head elected to that post.

It was barely four years after the fall of the Soviet Union and the triumph of "the West" over "communism."

For some indication of the excitement Zyuganov generated at Davos 1996, see here.

For evidence of Zyuganov being the big media "get" of the Forum, see here.

For more information about the 1996 election, see "The Phoenix," here.

More to come in

"RUSSIA REDUX"