Having witnessed several violent upheavals, General Alexander Lebed is remembered in history as the man who stopped two conflicts, the Transnistria War and the First Chechen War. He came in third in the 1996 presidential election. Lebed went on to become the Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, where he tragically died 3 years later. How did a combat general become a politician? Who helped him gain prominence, who sponsored him and why? And why did the road that seemed to be leading him to the presidency ended so tragically? Find the answers in the new Redaktsiya episode.
Contents:
00:00 Hi, friends
02:00 Why did we decide to film an episode about General Lebed?
06:05 Lebed’s journey to the presidency
12:42 How he witnessed the execution of workers in Novocherkassk
19:30 Did Lebed side with Yeltsin during the 1991 coup?
27:20 The love of Lebed’s life
29:28 Lebed’s first war - Afghanistan. How did he remember it?
38:55 How Lebed put down the 1988 protests in Baku
42:30 Sapper spades: what impact did the events in Tbilisi have on Lebed’s reputation?
47:30 How did Lebed stop the Transnistrian War?
56:56 At what point did he become a politician?
59:37 How Lebed became a presidential candidate
1:05:01 Did Lebed really harbor ambitions to become president?
1:06:44 How was Lebed’s image curated during the 1996 election?
1:11:38 Can a general become a pacifist?
1:14:02 Was Lebed aware he was being used for a backroom deal?
1:22:14 How did Lebed stop the First Chechen War?
1:28:30 Why are the Khasavyurt Agreements still a matter of so much debate?
1:32:07 Lebed’s nomination for the post of Krasnoyarsk Krai’s governor
1:39:19 “No one in the region had seen an election campaign the likes of it”
1:49:50 The role of the media in the 1998 election
1:53:40 Why did Lebed win the election?
1:58:18 “One of Lebed’s mistakes was that he trusted people”
2:04:58 How Putin’s rise to power changed Lebed’s career
2:09:36 The death of Alexander Lebed: a tragic accident or an assassination?
2:17:40 Could Lebed have become Russia’s president?