Title: Boris Yeltsin
Headings: Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Content: Yeltsin had in the meantime been obliged to make an urgent decision about what to do when his presidential mandate ran out in July 1996. His belief in his own popular appeal, coupled with a desire to humiliate the Communist opposition, swayed him. The Korzhakov clan was sidelined, and Yeltsin’s daughter, Tatyana, stepped in to the vacuum, ensuring that modern-minded advisers took over the campaign. Yeltsin himself, sustained by a $10 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, scattered bribes like confetti, and thanks to ruthless manipulation of the media, was re-elected with a handsome majority on the second round of voting in July 1996. But the effort of campaigning, which had the old man jigging on the stage at a rock concert, had caused a heart attack — his third — in June, after the first round of voting. He was out of action for most of the rest of the year. For the first time, a Russian ruler had staked his position on the will of the people. Yet Russia seemed stuck and few people really believed that they could change anything. When in March 1998 Yeltsin dismissed his Prime Minister, Victor Chernomyrdin, and the entire government, it caused a great stir. But such moves became habitual.