Alexander I Lebed

The man who many believe really rules Russia--and to whom the country's popular but now sacked strongman Alexander I. Lebed ascribed his downfall--celebrated a behind-the-scenes victory in typical style Friday: out of the public gaze. While the rest of the Russian elite speculated noisily about the consequences of Lebed's dramatic dismissal Thursday as security chief after four months of infighting with rivals for Boris N. Yeltsin's ear, only Anatoly B.

Thursday's firing of Alexander I. Lebed, Russia's popular and controversial national security advisor, could further complicate U.S.-Russian relations at a time when political turmoil in Moscow has already made ties difficult. Russia specialists, inside and outside the U.S. government, cited a series of potential effects of Lebed's departure for U.S. policy, even though the former army general had no direct foreign affairs responsibilities.

Angrily ending a 4-month-old marriage of political convenience, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Thursday stripped Alexander I. Lebed of the powerful job of security chief that he had bestowed on him early this summer and cast the flamboyant former general out of the Kremlin. Yeltsin said his aim was to end infighting over the presidential succession, at fever pitch since he announced Sept. 5 that he will undergo heart bypass surgery this year.

A Russian Cabinet minister on Wednesday struck the fiercest blow yet in the protracted Kremlin power struggle, accusing flamboyant security chief Alexander I. Lebed of plotting to seize power by force while President Boris N. Yeltsin awaits heart bypass surgery. With the 65-year-old Yeltsin's future ability to rule increasingly in doubt as doctors prepare him for an operation, tentatively scheduled for later this year, a clutch of would-be presidents has begun squabbling over the succession.

He has stopped the hated war in Chechnya, calmed the hysteria over eastward NATO expansion, bucked up troops on the verge of mutiny and given disillusioned Russians a leader they can believe in. Then there is the other Alexander I. Lebed. That one has slandered missionaries and minorities, muddied the diplomatic waters from Ukraine to Argentina, flirted with nationalists, Communists and shady security figures as allies and openly coveted the job of the president who appointed him.

Russian security chief Alexander I. Lebed, relishing his debut on the world political stage, emerged from NATO's military center praising the alliance and pledging closer cooperation. Lebed struck a moderate tone, in contrast to past outspoken attacks on NATO for its plans to expand eastward. The visit has been watched closely by Western officials eager to get his measure.

With Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin hospitalized and out of the Kremlin for the rest of the year, the ambitious general who is considered most likely to succeed him jumped into the power vacuum Thursday with a damning harangue against the current administration. Alexander I.

Disgusted by the shameless greed of his aides, Czar Peter the Great ordered the immediate execution of any official caught stealing from the government even the cost of a piece of rope. But the aide taking down the order paused. "Does Your Majesty wish to live alone in the empire without any subjects?" he asked. Three centuries have passed, but no ruler has had any more luck than Peter in wiping out corruption in Russia's vast administrative apparatus. So expectations were low when retired Gen.

As Russian security chief Alexander I. Lebed took his peace campaign to a call-in television audience, the government voiced its first high-level reservations Monday about the breakthrough accord he reached with separatist rebels in Chechnya. Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin told Lebed in a private meeting that he was worried about two elements of Saturday's accord, which builds on a recent cease-fire by deferring for five years the republic's claim to independence from Moscow.

With a masterful maneuver that promises to save face in the Kremlin and human life in Chechnya, Russian security chief Alexander I. Lebed on Saturday irrevocably hitched his political future to the fate of peace in the separatist southern republic. Although skeptics warn that Lebed may have set himself up for a clash with nationalist opponents and even with President Boris N.