School of Yelstin

Russian politicians are once again considering the possibility of removing Boris Yeltsin from office. At first, D-day was set at September 19, but it passed without anything happening, and it was assumed that the Russian leader will resign, but on October 19. The point is not that politicians coming out with such predictions (in this case Aleksandr Shokhin) use common people's logic, meaning that one acts as dictated by circumstances, while Boris Yeltsin is known to have always acted contrary to circumstances. The point is that power is the very air President Yeltsin breathes. It is neither his historical role nor interests of the entourage but POWER. Now one can imagine how Mikhail Gorbachev felt reading out his message surrendering his Soviet presidency or Leonid Kravchuk handing his office over to Leonid Kuchma and moving out of the Mariyinsky Palace. Can you picture Boris Yeltsin making a similar statement or handing his office over to somebody? I tried but could not. I can easily picture him announcing a postponement of the election. But a resignation announcement starting something like “Dear fellow citizens of Russia, I have made a very difficult decision...” No, just not in the cards. I am willing to agree with Viktor Chernomyrdin who, when asked by journalists about the possibility of Boris Yeltsin's resignation ahead of time, replied sarcastically, “What do you mean ahead of time? Let's hope to God he retires on time.”

Gorbachev and Kravchuk are people who live as though reading an encyclopedia entry about themselves. Nazarbayev and Luzhkov are also politicians of monumental ambition in the truest sense of the word. They want children to hear about them from their grandfathers a hundred years from now. (“See this capital [temple], Nurlan? It was built for us by our father Nursultan,” says Uncle George. “Take a good look, boy, and we'll go back to our Khrushchev apartment block, for we can't afford anything better.”)

But there are also politicians who can live in and with current realities. It is their special talent. Thus Yeltsin will never leave office voluntarily. You can talk about his resignation until hoarse. To understand this exotic character better, one has to bear in mind that Ukraine's second President is no encyclopedist, either, mildly speaking. He will happily forfeit his historical role to Kravchuk, Khreshchatyk renovation to Omelchenko. And in Dnipropetrovsk they consider the subway Lazarenko's personal achievement.

Leonid Kuchma needs precisely what Boris Yeltsin does, for both are graduates of the school of power for its own sake.