Tag: 1993

JRL NEWSWATCH: “New Russian order: After presidency, yet another role for Putin?” – Christian Science Monitor/ Fred Weir

Belarus, JRL NewsBlog, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Vladimir Putin Seated at Desk

“Russia faces a looming question: What follows Putin’s current, likely final presidential term? An answer is beginning to take shape – and may involve a new position for Putin and a reshaped political landscape” “For many years, the main slogan of anti-Kremlin opposition activists – often shouted as they were being dragged into police vans at street protests – has […]

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1993 Constitution Not to Blame for Putin’s Authoritarian System, Shelin Says

Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, December 12, 2018) Many analysts are inclined to blame the presidentialist nature of the 1993 Russian Constitution for the rise of authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin; but Sergey Shelin argues that is a mistake and that Putin’s approach to rule “arose not because a quarter of a century ago this document was adopted.” […]

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Russians have Three Serious Misconceptions about 1993 Constitution and Its Implications, Shelin Says

Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, June 6, 2018) Twenty-five years ago this week, Boris Yeltsin convened a constitutional convention in Moscow which produced a draft that was then ratified by referendum after “a small civil war” took place in which Yeltsin crushed “the Khasbulatov parliament,” Sergey Shelin says. Because of that congeries of events, the Rosbalt commentator […]

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[1993] NEWSWATCH: “Yeltsin crushes revolt; Parliament taken in tank battle; Opposition parties and newspapers banned” – The Guardian (UK)/ Jonathan Steele, David Hearst [from Oct. 5, 1993]

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Human Rights, Military, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin

[From 1993 archived article:] “President Boris Yeltsin moved swiftly last night to stamp his absolute power on Russia by suspending a range of political movements and closing opposition newspapers after the surrender of his main parliamentary opponents in the wake of the assault on the Russian White House. * * *  After a grisly 10-hour gun battle in which tanks punched […]

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[From 1993:] Russia Mourns Victims of Uprising

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anne Barnard, David Filipov – October 8, 1993) Moscow mourned the human cost of this week’s political bloodshed Thursday, as President Boris Yeltsin suspended the Constitutional Court he has accused of complicity in the violence. Several thousand friends, strangers and comrades in arms filed past the coffins of six policemen killed last Sunday and Monday […]

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Russia Can’t Escape Historical Retrospection in Crisis

Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(Blooomberg – bloomberg.com – Ye Xie and Elena Popina – October 9, 2014) As Russia starts burning through foreign reserves in a bid to defend the ruble, flashbacks to the country’s 1998 devaluation and default are inevitable. While the government is in a much stronger position today to fend off the crisis than it was then — foreign reserves are […]

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Autumn 1993 through American eyes

History, Soviet Union
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Wayne Merry, special to RBTH – October 3, 2013) Wayne Merry, a retired diplomat who served at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow 20 years ago, recalls October 1993. E. Wayne Merry was in charge of the analysis and reporting of Russian domestic political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow 1991-94. October 3, […]

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Split of ruling elites causes October 1993 events in Moscow – poll

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 2, 2013) Eighty percent of Russians remember the standoff between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov’s parliament that resulted in disturbances in Moscow in October 1993, sociologists told Interfax. Sixteen percent of the 1,600 respondents polled in 130 towns and cities in 42 regions in September learned about those events from the sociologists. Most […]

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How October 1993 led to President Putin

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Kolesnichenko, special to RBTH – October 3, 2013) Twenty years later, the changes to Russia’s political system enacted in the aftermath of the October 1993 attempted coup still reverberate. On Oct. 3, 1993, post-Soviet Russia faced its first major political crisis. The two-day conflict between then-President Boris Yeltsin and the State Duma […]

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Black October Revisited

History, Soviet Union
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 3, 2013) See the Black October Revisited Photogallery: www.themoscowtimes.com/multimedia/photogalleries/black-october-revisited/5114.html People commemorated on Thursday the 20th anniversary of Black October, a 10-day standoff between President Boris Yeltsin and the parliament that ended in military force and the deaths of at least 187 people. Members of the Alfa special forces and other law enforcement agencies who […]

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Putin chief of staff: 1993 constitution saves Russia’s ‘sovereignty and unity’

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, History, Soviet Union, Human Rights, Military, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 26, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff has credited Russia’s 1993 constitution with making it possible to “preserve the sovereignty and unity of Russia.” “The constitution has made it possible to preserve the sovereignty and unity of Russia. It has made it possible to step back from a very dangerous point and put political processes […]

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New Issue of Konstitutsionny Vestnik on the the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, History, Soviet Union, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

From: “Alexander Domrin” <adomrin@rumyantsevconsulting.ru> Subject: new issue of  Konstitutsionny Vestnik on the the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 Dear David ­ I am pleased to tell you and JRL readers that a new Konstitutsionny Vestnik issue of  can be downloaded from the web site of the Russian Foundation for Legal Reform: http://www.rfcr.ru/news_upload/kv3.pdf The issue […]

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A Dividing Issue, 20 Years On: Russia’s 1993 Constitutional Crisis

History, Soviet Union, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(RIA Novosti – Konstantin von Eggert – September 23, 2013) Konstantin Eggert was Diplomatic Correspondent for Izvestia in the 1990s and later the BBC Russian Service Moscow Bureau Editor. Konstantin has also spent some time working as ExxonMobil Vice President in Russia. Conflict is raging in Russia again. Luckily, not on the streets but in the country’s spirited blogosphere. The […]

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Re: Moscow October 1993

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

Subject: Re: Moscow October 1993 From: lsell52354@aol.com (Louis D. Sell) Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 In catching up on my reading I saw an exchange of e-mails on the events in Russia in October 1993.  At that time I was the acting number 2 at the US Embassy in Moscow, which as those familiar with Moscow know, is only a […]

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[Yeltsin and Parliament: 1993 Crisis] re: Adomanis/1993

History, Soviet Union, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

From: Stephen F. Cohen <sfc1@nyu.edu> Subject: re Adomanis/1993 Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 In his important revisiting of Yeltsin’s violent destruction of Russia’s elected parliament, and indeed its entire constitutional order, in October 1993, Mark Adomanis (JRL #113, 2013) endorses my longstanding argument that the country’s de-democratization began not with Putin but with that horrific event. I am grateful for […]

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