Lebed, Aleksandr Ivanovich (1950–2002)

Russian soldier and politician. He was briefly national security adviser in 1996 and successfully negotiated a peace settlement that ended the 1994–96 civil war in Chechnya. He was sacked by President Boris Yeltsin in 1997. In May 1998 he was elected governor of Krasnoyarsk region, which made him a serious contender for the Russian presidency in 2000.

An Afghan War veteran, Lebed sided with Yeltsin's supporters during the coup attempt in 1991, putting his tanks at the service of the defence of the Russian parliament. He was rewarded with the command of the 14th army based in the eastern region of Moldova; when Moldova became an independent state, Lebed remained in place, and was credited with a successful intervention in the fighting between Moldovans and the largely Russian and Ukrainian population of the TransDniestr region. He was dismissed from the Russian army by Yeltsin in June 1995.

After challenging Yeltsin for the Russian presidency in June 1996, Lebed was appointed national security adviser as a reward for transferring his support to the president. In spite of his peace plan for Chechnya and his public popularity, Lebed was sacked by Yeltsin in October 1996 amid accusations by interior minister Anatoly Kulikov that he was planning a ‘creeping coup’. In March 1997 he formed his own political party, the Russian People's Republican Party, to act as a ‘third force’ political alternative to President Yeltsin.

Lebed was born in Novocherkassk, southern Russia, and educated at the Ryazan Airborne Command School. During the Afghan War, Lebed served in the elite airborne troops, rising to command the Tula Airborne Division.