What ever happened to General Lebed? He seemed like an ok guy?
He died a few years back in a helicopter accident. He was actually standing up giving an interview while the helicopter was landing. The helicopter hit telephone wires and crashed. Lebed and the journalist died. The people buckled in survived. The pilots were charged with negligence.
Lebed, btw, would have been more autocratic than Putin. His position was Russia was too "young" as a new country to become completely democratic. He said his role model was Pincohet. His belief was Russia should gradually free the market and gradually free the press. That might of worked immediately after the Soviet Union imploded, but after the genie was let out of the bottle, it was too late to stuff it back in.