MOVIE OF THE SUMMER THE BEST SMALL So glad we were able to save them from themselves EXCLUSIVE ANIS ITO TE RESCUE THE SECRET STORY OF HOW AMERICAN ADVISERS HELPED VELTSIN WIN In late 1993, facing strong popular resistance to his harsh free. market policies, Yeltsin went further. He forcibly disbanded the Russian parliament and every other elected representative body in the country, including municipal and regional councils. He abol- ished Russia’s Constitutional Court and launched an armed attack upon the parliamentary building, killing an estimated two thousand resisters and demonstrators. Thousands more were jailed without charges or a trial, and hundreds of elected officials were placed under investigation. Yeltsin banned labor unions from all political activities, sup- pressed dozens of publications, exercised monopoly control over all broadcast media, and permanently outlawed fifteen political parties. He unilaterally scrapped the constitution and presented the public with a new one that gave the president nearly absolute power over policy while reducing the democratically elected parliament to vir- tual impotence.’ For these crimes he was hailed as a defender of democracy by U.S. leaders and media. What they most liked about Yeltsin was that he “never wavered in his support for privatization” (San Franicsco Chronicle, 716/94).? yep, i see no problem here agreements with the United States. Amid growing internal pressure. by the end of 199 he resigned and was succeeded by his chosen successor, former Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Out of office. he kept a low profile. but following his death in April 2007 was accorded a state funeral no problem at all, nope