Alexander Lebed

Alexander Lebed
Александр Лебедь
Lebed in 1996
3rd Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai
In office 5 June 1998 – 28 April 2002
President	Boris Yeltsin Vladimir Putin
Preceded by	Valery Zubov
Succeeded by	Alexander Khloponin
Secretary of the Security Council
In office 18 June – 17 October 1996
President	Boris Yeltsin
Prime Minister	Viktor Chernomyrdin
Preceded by	Oleg Lobov
Succeeded by	Ivan Rybkin
Personal details
Born	Alexander Ivanovich Lebed (1950-04-20)20 April 1950 Novocherkassk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	28 April 2002(2002-04-28) (aged 52) Abakan, Russia
Political party	Congress of Russian Communities
Spouse	Inna Lebed
Profession	Soldier
Awards	Order of the Red Banner Order of the Red Star Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR (2nd and 3rd class)
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union (1969–1991)  Russian Federation (1991–1995)
Branch/service	Russian Airborne Troops
Years of service	1969–1995
Rank	Lieutenant general
Commands	106th Guards Airborne Division 14th Guards Army
Battles/wars	Soviet–Afghan War Transnistria War

Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed (Russian: Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Ле́бедь; 20 April 1950 – 28 April 2002) was a Soviet and Russian military officer and politician who held senior positions in the Airborne Troops before running for president in the 1996 Russian presidential election. He did not win, but placed third behind incumbent Boris Yeltsin and the Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, with roughly 14% of the vote nation-wide. Lebed later served as the Secretary of the Security Council in the Yeltsin administration, and eventually became the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, the second largest Russian region. He served four years in the latter position, until his death following an Mi-8 helicopter crash.

He participated in most of Russia's military conflicts in the final decade of the Soviet Union, including the Soviet–Afghan War. From 1988 until 1991, General Lebed served as the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division, and later became the deputy head of the Russian Airborne Troops. The general also played a key role in ending the military phase of the conflict in Moldova between Transnistrian separatists and the Moldovan government in 1992, as the commander of the Russian 14th Guards Army which intervened and occupied the region. Popular among the army, when he resigned his commission in 1995 to enter politics, Lebed was also regarded as being charismatic by the public, in contrast to other Russian politicians in the 1990s, with polls showing his popularity being ahead of Yeltsin's for some time. As the Secretary of the Security Council in the president's administration after the 1996 election he also led the negotiations that ended the First Chechen War.

Although Lebed was compared by some Western and Russian analysts to Augusto Pinochet and Napoleon Bonaparte, he was considered to be the most popular candidate for the presidential election of 2000 during the second term of President Yeltsin. After getting elected as governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai in 1998 with strong support from Anatoly Bykov, however, he decided to stay in that position and did not run for president, despite calls for him to do so.^[1] General Lebed held the position until his death in the 2002 helicopter crash.^[2]