ALEKSANDR LEBED b. April 20, 1950

ALEXANDER LEBED

b. April 20, 1950

ALEKSANDR IVANOVICH LEBED

d. April 28, 2002

from

THE PHOENIX

(Winter 1999)

"Aleksandr Lebed promises a firm hand with a vengeance.

The former general positions himself as the anti-corruption

outsider, but seems to have no stable political orientation.

His brief stint as national security adviser was his only

civilian government post. He is finally getting political

executive experience, having been elected governor of

Krasnoyarsk Krai this past spring; whether he will make a

success of the endeavor is still an open question. He prides

himself on his independence, and his unpredictability

worries the Russian political establishment. But there are

rumors that famed oligarch Boris Berezovsky helped fund

his campaign. And sometimes he is suspected by Russian

of being the American candidate, or at least, the American

favorite."

-- whatever future Lebed might have had in Russian politics

was cut short by a helicopter crash in April 2002 -- and the

dynamics had been altered by the election of Vladimir Putin,

another "firm hand," as president in March 2000 -- still --