Twenty years ago, Russia and the world were stunned to learn of the death of retired Lieutenant General Alexander Lebed.
A highly decorated Army paratrooper and then governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai (the second-largest state in Russia), Lebed, 52, was increasingly critical of and considered a rival to Russia's new president Vladimir Putin.
Putin, many Russians believe, may have feared Lebed as the biggest potential threat to his reign.
On April 28, 2002, Lebed was killed when an Mi-8 helicopter in which he was riding collided with electrical lines in the Sayan Mountains. The fatal accident was blamed on foggy weather. More than a few Putin-watchers have suggested foul play and sabotage ended the life of the man they felt had the best chance of stopping Putin's rise to absolute power.
"Lebed died under extremely strange circumstances in 2002, and no detailed investigation has been carried out," Russian publisher Sergey Parkhomenko told Newsmax, "And that investigation that was carried out was led by Sergei Shoigu, then head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and today Minister of Defense."
To many Putin-watchers, the fate of Lebed foretold those of future opponents of Russian's strongman president; Boris Nemtsov, potential presidential opponent to Putin, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in 2015; Alexei Navalny, critic of official corruption and also a presidential candidate in-waiting who was poisoned in 2020 and now in prison; journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, survivor of two near-fatal poisonings who is now facing ten years in prison for public criticism of the war in Ukraine.
Decorated for service in the Russia-Afghan War, Lebed rose to be deputy head of the Russian Airborne Troops. He abruptly ended a dynamic military career in 1995 to enter politics. He was elected to the Duma (parliament) and, a year later, he waged what even supporters later agreed was an amateurish campaign in Russia's first presidential election as a sovereign nation.
Incumbent President Boris Yeltsin topped the field with 35.8%, followed by Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov at 32%, and Lebed a distant third with 14%.
Yeltsin saw talent in his former rival and named him secretary of the Security Council—roughly the equivalent of the National Security Council adviser to the U.S. president. In that capacity, Lebed oversaw negotiations that ended the First Chechen War in August 1996.
The peace accords with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov in October of that year made Lebed Russia's most popular politician, and he was immediately considered the heir apparent to Yeltsin.
But a faction within the Kremlin led by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin feared Lebed and soon arranged his firing on never-proven charges he was planning a coup.
Lebed left, made a visit to the U.S. to discuss investing in Russia with U.S. businessmen (including former president Donald Trump, who said he thought Lebed "was terrific"), and, in 1998, was elected governor.
Another bid for the presidency seemed the next logical step. But in 2000, Lebed announced he was passing on the race and was satisfied with his work as governor. Putin was easily elected to his first term.
By 2002, talk was growing that Lebed would run in 2004 to defeat Putin, the two holding one another in "minimum high regard."
"Did Lebed have the ability to change Russia for the better? I don't know," said A. Craig Copetas, former Wall Street Journal reporter in Moscow and author of the critically-acclaimed Bear Hunting with the Politburo. "The more important component is that Putin viewed Lebed — and all the others looking to change the landscape — as a threat to his power. Specifically, that is fascist capitalism with the gloves off."
Herman Pirchner, founding president of the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), recalled a 2001 meeting with Lebed in Krasnoyarsk Krai at which "he attacked Russia's growing engagement with China at length."
"I remember him saying 'those fools in Moscow are selling Russian planes to China — planes that will one day be used to bomb our citizens,'" he said.
"I don't know if he could have become president, but he certainly was a force and a man that Putin feared," recalled Laure Mandeville, former Russian bureau chief for the venerable French publication Le Figaro. "Putin always detested strong men from the military. The KGB and army always fought, and it is no wonder that Putin appointed in the last few years very weak men at the top of the military to avoid any kind of 'Bonapartist' threat — although the Russian army never was 'Bonapartist' by tradition."
Lebed deeply admired Charles de Gaulle, and the strong presidency of the French Fifth Republic sculpted by his fellow general was reportedly the model he envisioned for Russia.
Lebed also praised Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet for bringing order to his country — a signal many said that a "President Lebed" would consider imposing authoritarian rule on Russia as Putin himself eventually did.
"Lebed was an autocrat but one with a very pronounced sense of right and wrong," said AFPC's Pirchner. "One was not left with much doubt about where he stood. Referring to Moscow politicians, he said 'I don't like whores — in dresses or in suits.'"
Would Lebed have pursued the advances into Georgia's South Ossetia and then Ukraine as Putin did? While Lebed envisioned Ukraine and Belarus as part of an eventual Russian confederation and did fear that former Russian states joining NATO would embolden those wanting a more hard-line government in Russia, he was also someone who had seen war and hated it.
"Contrary to Putin, he knew war was very ugly and thought it should be avoided," Le Figaro's Mandeville told Newsmax. "He always said it was much easier to get into a war than to get out, and called politicians to send their sons first if they were so eager to fight."
No one can say how modern Russia might have been different had Lebed lived and eventually challenged Putin. But 20 years after his death, the chain-smoking, bass-voiced politician's admirers simply called "the General" is recalled — albeit quietly in much of Russia — vividly and fondly.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.